Neptunia in Insomnia
by Subsurface
Summary: This story is cancelled. I have decided to cancel it after a few months of introspection and realized that I can't write anything believable with this material anymore. Serves me right for having knee-jerk reactions to stats the public can't see. I'll reboot this story when I can get a proper long-term plan for how it's going to play out.
1. First Contact

_Hyperdimension, a place where four (originally five) goddesses reign, backed by the faith of their citizens, they have persisted through threats from within their past and outside their dimension. Once again, the nations of Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee will face a new development._

_Scientists within several major NATO countries developed an interdimensional transportation system, originally sending drones into unknown worlds, searching for life. This private organization is headed by ex-government officials. The researchers engaged in this project include veterans hailing from many parts of the world, from the ice cold tundra of Nunavut to the sweltering deserts surrounding Ayers Rock._

_Six researchers, two from the aforementioned areas, volunteered to survey one such location which currently holds life. They are armed with five custom-made pistols, a C19 scout rifle, TAC-50 sniper rifle, Remington 870 shotgun, and a tomahawk. All weapons are legally obtained._

_In addition, they are well-versed in linguistics and understand several foreign and not-so-foreign languages. They are of course well-versed, breadth and depth, in at least one scientific field._

_Donning suits and entering the portal, they take their first steps into a new, highly uncomfortable reality._

* * *

"Ugh, seriously, what the hell! The whole place is saturated with electromagnetic signals! Not very strong ones, but still… I don't see a single radio tower out here for miles, and we are apparently deep underground, so why are we getting this much noise?"

That noise came from Pauline Redjacket, a physicist. She's the one carrying the TAC-50 and is currently holding a compact device that measures radio signals and holds up to 2 terabytes of data.

Her secondary priorities involve maintaining the team's weapons. She's good at keeping the team's pistols in excellent condition.

The team already set up a marker to indicate the position they spawned from. They so far have been attacked by a large wolf-tiger hybrid creature. It was incredibly fast but quick thinking on the part of the guy that carries their ammunition enabled them to cripple the animal before it could harm anyone.

Deciding to get out while the going's good, they left it alone. They aren't planning on staying longer than a single day anyways, since they are only going to use the time to study the place's biology.

Or they would have, if not for the fact that they heard an ear-raping scream behind them. They didn't expect anything close to a human, but considering they _did_, they concluded that something is deeply wrong and decided to follow that noise.

What they saw was something beyond their understanding. A flat, panel-like object that looks like a screen with a text box, swinging at nothing other than a human woman in a skin-tight, flashy suit. Even then, it didn't look completely human. Enlarged, glowing eyes, with a power symbol burning inside, and an engine-like apparatus floating on her back.

Suddenly, the figure moved, breaking the sound barrier and slicing the two-dimensional monstrosity no less than ten times, before taking a backflip. The box split into multiple, disappearing pieces.

What they are witnessing is the console patron unit of Planeptune beating the shit out of a sentient frame of a virtual novel. This is the team's breaking point, and they immediately headed to the portal.

"I had my body camera on the whole time we been in this place, and everybody's going to look at us like we altered the footage or some shit! I can't believe my eyes and I want to just do anything, ANYTHING but be here anymore. Oh god oh fuck notgoingtogetcaughtby-"

That rambling is courtesy of David Windich. He's the guy that brought the shotgun, and his experience is centered around forensic science and sociology. His Australian heritage didn't stop him from learning not only his hometown's native languages but also Japanese, Inuktitut, and Mohawk. The latter two languages were very recent, learned with great difficulty on the request of the team's boss as to improve sensitive communication between team members.

"David, quit using the codec chip for transmitting an SOS signal. We're all here and we don't need that racket frying our neurons. Not to mention the mere idea of that thing being able to listen to our comms sets my hairs on end. We need this pathway clean so we can find the portal, so shut it."

And we introduce Takeshi Minata, the team's communications officer and the person that set up the portal's beacon. Like David, he had to learn Inuktitut, and he's terrible at it. Everyone knows of the preference to use English unless secrecy is required. He's moderately good at both hardware and software, which is convenient because if something breaks here then he's the one to fix it.

Nearing the portal, the Fenrir decided to wander back into the path that they engaged in the last time.

And right behind them, Purple Heart readies her blade…

* * *

I guess I should introduce the last three people in this group.

The woman carrying ammunition, the tomahawk and the C19 sniper rifle goes by the callsign of "Ranger", which is both enigmatic and intimidating to everyone else on the team. She's totally, completely fluent in the languages that the project supervisor required the team to know, which fuels conspiracy theories among the above two males. Which is good in terms of the group's stability because they can't stand each other otherwise. She seems to have investigative expertise and mirrors Takeshi's cold, calculating personality. She's also the only one on the team that isn't carrying a pistol.

The team's medic is taken by Edward Fleming. His pistol is none other than a Walther PPK. If anyone didn't notice, he's an avid fan of the James Bond series, and loves fictional espionage. He has a job to do right now though, and that's monitoring the test group's response to the environment, as well as getting relevant samples of the ecosystem itself. He's been crushing on Miss "Ranger" for a rather ridiculous amount of time now but her stoic responses only makes his _*ahem*_ **resolve** harder. He's fluent in Greek and Latin simply because of his background but taken up the prospect of learning new languages well.

Then there's Ayrton Carlos, who decided to bring a fucking **revolver** because he likes breaking his hands. Hailing from Brazil and having extensive involvement with the petroleum industry, he often receives hostile looks from the team's ammo bag. He wonders _why_ "Ranger" is on the team instead of what her identity really is, considering that everyone else has a clear technical role. His role on the team is derived from his extensive chemical knowledge, being able to synthesize and separate numerous compounds. His masculinity is as toxic as anyone's could be, but at least it doesn't translate to sexism or racism. Yet.

* * *

With a hop, skip, and a leap, the six, masked and rather heavy humans **trampled** the Fenrir blocking their way. "Ranger", the fastest and heaviest, jumped over the beast's swiping claws and landed on the poor thing's backside, throwing it off balance. David used its face as a foothold and sprinted right down its spine. Takeshi and Edward practiced parkour on its shoulder blades, causing its front paws to skid on the ground. Ms. Redjacket did a wall-run instead of taking a direct route into the animal. Finally, Ayrton ran across the side of its face and delivered a roundhouse kick to its tail, careening it to Purple Heart.

"Goddammit Ayrton quit showing off!" David squawked into the codec. He continued his sprint. "You know, things could get really, really bad if that thing comes across our portal. We should find a place where that thing can't get us and move on from there."

"I remember a crevice we passed by earlier." Ranger decided to use the comms for the first time in the mission. "It's really cramped but it should be enough for that monster to not follow us in. Thankfully I'm faster than all of you even with all this gear. Follow my lead."

As she said that, she jumped down into a river below. Transmitting video feed to the rest of the group, they followed her exact path where she waits to soften their fall. They all clambered underneath a bridge, large enough to hold four lanes of vehicular traffic. Under that bridge there lied a cavern large enough for a human to pass through, but far too small for Purple Heart in HDD. As if on cue, everyone climbed into the cramped space and waited.

Ranger, coming in last, quickly changed her parka's and backpack's colors to reflect the surrounding cavern, shifting from an earthy brown tone to a dark grey, disruptively patterned one. Purple Heart didn't even attempt to move down the river, just looking over the edge and assuming the worst.

Edward noted the recent development. "Okay David, you can stop pissing yourself now. We just need to wait this out. Two hours. What do we do until then?"

"99 bottles of beer on the wall! 99 bottles of beer! Take one-"

"Ayrton we are **not** doing that!" Takeshi protested about Ayrton's choice in idling activity.

"Unable to control the smoldering passion that he kept deep inside for her he decided to-"

"Redjacket, we are **not** doing that." This time Ranger wasn't a fan of what was about to transpire.

"Forget it. I'm going to catch up on some reading. If anyone wants me just give me a poke."

"Sailor Moon? Manga? I thought Mr. Minata was into video games. PAYDAY, Destiny, Rainbow Six." Ranger was genuinely intrigued at this new development. Even so, she kept a calm, neutral tone.

"Eh, more likely a fan of SCP shit. Last Chance Diner was fucking hilarious. Either way, I decided to read up on the most ridiculous and dangerous shit the imagination could take us to, and I already read Superman. Anyways, quit reading into my logs before I start thinking of new administrator privileges."

"Okay, okay, chill out. I was just asking."

* * *

As time passed, the six observed two purple-haired girls approaching the riverside. They seem to be discussing something important. The shorter one giggled and choreographed with her hands something that appears to be (and in fact was) the researcher's final experience with the Fenrir that they shot.

"And then the last one just ran across the side of its face and went **PSCHEEW-BOOSH!** and landed a roundhouse kick to its backside! They didn't even stop and do a pose for how good that looked, they just kept running as if they saw a ghost or something!"

"Onee-chan, that's awful. Still, high-level adventurers that not even the guild knows about?"

"I know, right?! I even asked Histy and she was all like 'abababababa'"

"Neptune, don't lie about stuff like that…"

"Aw c'mon Nepgear, let me have a little bit of fun, I'm not lazing about like last week this time!"

As if on cue, Nepgear got a video call from Histoire.

"Nepgear, have you discovered the source of the spacetime distortion yet?"

"Not yet Histoire. It seems likely that whatever Neptune found was related to that."

"I understand. I'll be in contact again once you leave Otori Caverns. Please be careful."

"Of course! Love you too Histy!"

"Neptune, I-"

And just like that, Neptune disconnected from the radio call.

"Onee-chan!"

"Hehe! Gottem!"

As they were having their conversation, Ranger was listening intently. Noticing the fact that they speak fluent English, and are using Japanese honorifics, she was thinking of bringing up the issue with the rest of her team. Unfortunately, one particular member has noticed that they aren't alone in the cave they decided to vacate to. David, turning on his flashlight, looked backwards and saw a blue gelatinous body, two beady eyes and a dog-like snout staring them down. He backed into Edward.

"What the fuck was- oh. Guys? I don't think that camo would do us much good anymore…"

"Another one of these weird, mutant things? What is this, a slug?"

As if it was offended by such a description, it started to roar "DOGOO" slowly, but multiple times. It was squeezing through the cavern as if the cave itself was giving birth. Overhead they observe bats and insects lodged inside its body, all of which are obviously dead.

Everyone came to the same conclusion – this animal was a predator, and it's looking for its next meal.

Ranger immediately decided that this was no time to be stealthy.

"David! Shoot the damn thing!"

* * *

BANG! BANG! SPLAT!

The noise attracted the attention of the two girls. Fortunately, the underground nature of their location made that noise sound like it was echoing from everywhere. Unfortunately, the cave below became filled with blue dogoo jelly, covering the research team and leaving a visible mark of where that sound came from. The half-digested bats and insects littered the entrance behind them, and the slime stinks, like a man without deodorant returning from an intense workout at the gym.

It would have caused serious discomfort, at least to Takashi, if it not for the fact everyone is wearing environmental isolation suits. Well, maybe not the goddesses, but they're used to this sort of thing.

"A goddess flying under a bridge? Don't you know that's ten years of bad luck Nepgear?"

"Come on Neptune, I'm not going to come home telling Histoire that you decided to stay outside of a little bit of water again. Access!"

Just like that, Nepgear transformed into Purple Sister, and swooped downwards to the cavern's entrance. Neptune decided to follow suit just to avoid another lecture from Histoire.

"Neptune, does this remind you of anything?"

"Yeah, it reminds me of Steamax."

"_Why_ does it remind you of Steamax?"

"Well when he was running away from us, he decided to cut up a few magazines."

"You know what? I shouldn't have asked. Well, we're here."

The cave was completely empty. The only things they could find were dead animals no bigger than Violet Heart's left wing.

"Nepgear, you go first."

"What?"

"You **wanted** to be here, you go first."

"But Neptune, your human form is smaller and has a weapon that doesn't cause injuries if you just poke things with it!"

"My human form doesn't have boots."

"You just don't want to do work again!"

"Fine! You're doing laundry tonight then."

Transforming back into her human form, she wandered inside, holding the N-Gear out to emit light down the path in front of her. Finding nothing, she heads back out.

"Nothing. Anything that could have been there is gone now. So much for reversing my transformation."

* * *

"Otori Caves, huh? So that's our starting location. And if we're lucky, it would be where we leave this place. Don't want to find out what happens when one of those things gets unleashed on Earth."

"Still, it's nice that we aren't getting any dangerous types of radiation outside. The sun emits just the right amount of ultraviolet, and no higher frequencies are coming in. Still, the air content… Ayrton, what can you say about that?"

Ayrton is silent. His face furrowed into a serious frown.

"These air samples, I don't know what this blue shit is, but the compounds inside are definitely as complex as a strand of DNA. Hook up enough of this stuff to a couple of wires and a lightbulb, and it starts glowing. I don't want to know what happens when you start breathing in this kind of battery juice but… my suit's been compromised."

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked at the man with shock.

After a long and awkward silence, Edward moved up to Ayrton and noticed his suit was just fine.

"Okay seriously, that shit isn't funny. We thought you could have died there. On a related note, we really need to avoid violent confrontations and focus on making sure our suits don't break down. Secondly, we need you, Ayrton, to test if any medical drugs bind to this stuff and allow us to pass it through our urinary tracts. We can't have this shit run amok in our bloodstream."

"Guys, seriously, how do we get back home?"

Ranger asks that question as everyone else was washing out the dogoo crap from their camouflage. She's looking back at the cave where they came out of, realizing that Purple Heart and Sister were scanning the waterways for them. Redjacket offers her thoughts on the present situation.

"So, we need a new hiding spot. It seems like they don't have anything fancy like thermal goggles or heartbeat sensors, otherwise that cave would have stayed dark. They're looking for us below, so perhaps this time we should try above?"

"You saw those things, they can fly, we can't. So unless you have a good hiding spot in the cave's ceiling, we should probably get ready to start running again."

Redjacket points to a small underground plateau, overlooking the stream winding inside. It's in the general direction of where the portal should be.

Getting a nod from Ranger, she started to scale the rock face. Subsequently Ayrton, not wanting to be shown up by someone else, followed her alongside the top of the stream's cliffside towards the plateau's rock face. Redjacket remained ahead however…

A bit of a running start and a leap of faith later, and her arms secured their grip on the ledge at the top. Afterwards, the rest followed suit. When David, the last man on the ledge, was being boosted up by none other than Ayrton, Takeshi noticed two different girls, not even of the age of 15, approaching their portal. Freaking out, he helps Ayrton up and pushed David into their direction.

* * *

Immediately noticing what Takeshi is going to do, Ranger makes for a sprint right at the two girls. Pushing past them, she delivers a roundhouse kick to the side of a girl dressed in a blue jacket, followed up by clocking the one in a pink sweater, straight in the face, and sending her towards the other five with a judo throw. The one in blue brandished two daggers hidden under her cuffs and started to charge at her. David interrupts her attack with a tackle and dismantles her weapons.

The pink one started screaming but Ayrton covered her mouth and brandished his revolver. He was **not** going to be cut up by some purple mutant in a skintight suit, not now, not ever.

Pauline retraced the two's steps to see if they could have discovered the portal. After making sure the pathway was clear, she relayed that information to the rest.

Rummaging through to find something that could be used to gag the girls, Takeshi applied electrical tape to their mouths and bound their wrists. Then, they pushed the two to the center of the plateau and escaped back into the portal, taking their beacon with them. 25 seconds later, the portal closes.

They returned home with bodycam footage, airborne particulate samples, and David screaming-

"**Why the fuck is my pee blue?!"**

Immediately after hearing his protest, Edward summoned himself to the bathroom. The toilet water taken on a rich, indigo hue, not unlike the color of the particulate matter Ayrton found. He decided to take the urine sample and run David through some tests.

Everyone else's urine was a deep golden color and showed no anomalies that couldn't be explained by their engagement in vigorous exercise. David's isolation suit was found to be breached.

In the meantime, the other four get some much-needed rest.

* * *

IF and Compa finally broke through their restraints.

It taken them 45 seconds to do that. By now, the portal is already closed, and nothing is present that could trace where they would have moved to.

That doesn't matter, because Compa was bawling her tits off.

Nepgear and Neptune heard the noise while scouring the riverbed, almost approaching the dungeon's entrance outside. After hearing that, they flew back into the dungeon and circled overhead, finding the two on the same rock face that the six left them at.

"Oh wow, you look bruised Compa. Here."

Nepgear used a healing spell on the beleaguered nurse. Neptune instead opted to offer up a Nep Bull to IF. She drank it without saying much, and both goddesses transformed into their less imposing forms.

"_Nep-nep it was horrible there was this guy with a huge backpack that sprinted past us he kicked Iffy and punched me in the face and-"_

"Woah, slow down Compa. I don't know what you are saying when you talk that fast." Neptune said.

"_Then there was this other guy that put his hand over my mouth and pulled out a gun and I thought I was going to die but-"_

"Okay, I think we should all go back to the Basilicom like, right now. Neptune, Nepgear? If you would do the honors, I want to go home." IF said.

Just then, Nepgear got a message from Histoire again.

"Nepgear, that spacetime anomaly that I sent you to investigate? It's gone now… I don't know what happened but if you can find something…"

Neptune interrupted Histoire. "Does a beat up IF and Compa count as something? It looks like they had electrical tape plastered over their faces, IF has broken ribs and Compa looks like she regrew some teeth."

"Oh goodness, that's frightening!"

Nepgear started talking. "Indeed. I don't think it's safe for people to be waltzing around here but, how long ago did the spacetime anomaly close up?"

"A minute, approximately." Histoire said, looking at something beyond the camera that neither of the CPUs were shown.

"Compa was crying for, a minute, approximately." IF said.

Ignoring IF's comment, Histoire continued with her report. "Either way, I noticed that there's now a share energy fluctuation there, so I'm wondering if that's connected somehow. Either way, IF? Compa? Can you stand?"

Compa immediately stood up and walked over to where she was going before. She overshot by just a bit though and immediately turned her head left.

"Nep-nep, you might want to look at this."

The ground surrounding the portal was stained yellow by a fluorescent, unknown particulate. Nepgear was still holding the N-Gear and IF was even starting to approach the dust. The N-Gear had full view of the scene in front of them, and Histoire seemed to recognize something's _very_ wrong with that picture.

She broke the silence with a simple command.

"Neptune! Get out of there, now!"

The yellow particulate reacted to Neptune's form, metamorphizing to a clone of her HDD form, radiating pure bloodlust. IF, Compa, and Nepgear grabbed Neptune and started running. Escape button still in IF's hand, Neptune slammed her fist down into it, turning the red button into a hole in the box itself.

Radiating bright, cyan-blue energy, the item warps Neptune and co. out of Otori Caves.

Histoire reels inside the Basilicom, noticing that Planeptune's share energy dropped significantly from that stunt. She decided to make a call to someone important.

"Uzume, Planeptune needs you again."


	2. Enter Uzume

"Uzume, Planeptune needs you again."

"Histoire? Long time no see-"

"Uzume this is an emergency. Neptune and Nepgear were in Otori Caves when they came across this."

Histoire sends Uzume the last few seconds of video feed before the goddesses' escape.

"Woah, that looks very familiar! Yellow glowing crystalline stuff, fake goddesses… I wasn't anywhere near Otori Caves! So, you want me to look over there and see what's up?"

"Indeed. Make haste or all of Gamindustri would be toast."

"Gotcha! Anything else I should know?"

"Well after that dust reacted to the presence of Neptune, share energy has dropped dramatically. Normally I'd ask you to help with that, but it seems that I'll need to brief Nepgear instead."

"So, no transforming if I can help it, okay… Should I get rid of that thing or should we have someone tag in once I figure out… whatever the hell that stuff is…"

"Either/or."

"Pick Blansy or Noirsy. Me and Vert have some shit to work out before I can feel safe alone with her."

"That's… erm… cool… I guess. I'm guessing Vert has problems with you or something?"

"She's totally pissed off at me, so I'd rather not be skewered while doing something like this."

"Well, you know what to do. I'll brief you on additional details as you progress further."

* * *

"So all of this started from something entering our dimension, right?"

Uzume is inside Otori caverns, speaking to Histoire.

"Yes, and it seems like those creatures and that new phenomena are related somehow."

Uzume only gave a nod to that speculation. If anything, she's a little bit scared that whatever happened is her fault in some way, like the time she was Planeptune's CPU.

"Well at least if it was anything lewd, I know my powers wouldn't be involved."

Histoire wonders if that's part of her conflict with Vert. It is well known that Vert has a huge yaoi collection, and even Rom and Ram seen it at this point. Uzume on the other hand has absolutely no possessions indicating her sex drive, orientation, or otherwise.

"Porn is for losers after all."

"Uzume, is everything really okay? I have a feeling that you are getting distracted."

Just then, an unnatural-sounding roar emanated from above. It sounded like absolutely nothing that Uzume or even Histoire heard before. In reality, the waveform heard by the CPU is a sum of the cries of many animals from Earth – sea lions, penguins, dingoes… It's loud, almost digital, and very, very painful.

"What the **fuck** was that noise?"

"It's coming from above!"

As Uzume looked up to respond to Histoire's reaction, she saw Purple Heart diving downwards with her blade. Her eyes, even the same as Neptune's, were unfocused.

"Get down!"

Noire dived straight for Uzume. Purple Heart, missing her mark, readies her blade again.

Then they heard a gunshot. Purple Heart staggered and looked back to the source of the gunfire.

"Nice shot Unisy!" Uzume said as she picked herself back up.

"Paralyze Fencer!" Noire yelled out while Purple Heart was distracted.

Purple Heart countered almost immediately. Swatting the tip of Noire's blade away with her katana, she follows up with a rapid sideways slash. Noire jumps out of the way and matches Purple Heart's speed with her weapon's longer range.

"How about this then? Volcano Dive!"

Jetting straight downwards, she stomps Purple Heart's face, stabs her rapier into the ground, and conjures magma out, singeing her opponent's wings and armor.

Jumping off her quarry's face, Noire lets Uzume finish the imitator off.

* * *

Uzume continues punching the fake CPU.

"Oraoraoraoraora!"

As she does so, the monster sheds yellow dust as each impact generates an explosion of yellow light. Eventually, after punching air three times in a row, Uzume jumps back and prepares the finishing blow.

"**Disappear!"**

Yelling into her megaphone, whatever remained of Purple Heart turned into crumbs.

* * *

Uzume was debriefing with Histoire about what happened.

"That was a nightmare."

"You're telling me!" Noire responded to that while polishing her rapier.

"No like, a literal, actual nightmare. That dust, it felt like _me._ But it _wasn't_ me."

Histoire furrowed her brow in concentration.

"If this is true, perhaps the unknowns were in a dream-like state?"

"If that was true, they wouldn't be moving as fast as they did."

Uzume and Noire turned around. Neptune was in full HDD, holding her sword in front of her. Predictably, that scared the two so much that they jumped four feet in the air.

"Yikes! Relax, it's just me…"

Turning off HDD, she put away her weapons and tried to coax the two out of hiding.

"Neptune! Can't you read the context of the situation?"

"Nooooope."

Noire's protest apparently fell on deaf ears. Displaying a smirk and covering her hand, Neptune jumped up to greet them. Uzume climbed down the cliff face she was latched on to.

"Nepsy, you ass! We could have killed you or something!"

"Uh, Neptune? Planeptune's low on share energy, so we need to conserve it."

Histoire's complaints fell on deaf ears.

"Uzume! I brought some guys to record the whole show!"

A box was waddling over to meet the three. An antenna poked out of it and a miniature robot disengaged an electronic refractive camouflage and moved to it.

"Hayter? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hello!" The robot spun in a pirouette and tried to approach the three girls.

"Oh my, who is this?" Uzume asks nobody in particular.

"That's Mr. Home Security! He's even better at taking pictures than Noire!"

"Neptune, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"I mean Nepgear is paying him to ogle at us!"

"I am **not** a voyeur, Purple Heart! I don't want people looking at my resume and thinking 'oh this guy would be peeping into the bathroom all the time and watch us use the toilet!'"

"Don't you?"

"**No!** I have security systems to sell! I also go to NepHub like a normal person!"

"Wait, we have a NepHub? I didn't think my sister had it in her…"

"Nepsy, I don't think that Gearsy would have it in her to do that kind of thing. I also don't think it's something that any goddess did on their own."

"Well of course a goddess wouldn't work on it on their own, silly! The common folk would lose their NPC occupations that way!"

"Just admit that you don't like doing work already Neptune."

The robot started approaching Noire.

"Noire, I am contractually obligated by Purple Sister to cut off video feed as soon as any mention about 'work' and 'Neptune' or 'Purple Heart' come together. She wants us to help recover Planeptune's share energy through our little 'documentary' series. Histoire briefed you on this, yes?"

"I was just told of an existential threat, I didn't know that Neptune's going to join us later!"

They were interrupted by a buzzing sound coming from Uzume's visual radio.

"Uzume, there's another spacetime distortion near the Planeptune-Lowee border!"

"Shit. Well thanks for relaying the coordinates ahead of time Histoire."

"Planeptune regained a significant amount of share energy – Transform and fly!"

"Wait!"

Everyone turned to look behind them. The man in the box shuffled excitedly towards the group, and Uni was jogging right behind him.

"I have an escape button! Everyone hold on while I get it out!"

As if on cue, the escape button popped out from behind the box. Home Security positioned the button on its topside. The four CPUs held the box as the camera drone jumps on the button.

In a flash of bright blue light, they were once again out of Otori Caves.

Duct tape noises can be heard inside the box as the robot was last seen crawling inside.

* * *

"Hey, Mr. Hayter?"

"You could just call me Snake."

"I don't want to freak you out but, are you sure that you are floating the right way?"

Home Security, sitting at his computer, is tracking Snake Hayter's GPS coordinates. Since leaving Otori Caves Snake decided to air-mail himself with a balloon. Due to high winds he was floating not towards Lowee, but instead back towards Planeptune.

Munching on blanc manju ordered online, he already tried to contact Nepgear or Histoire. The weather is not at all helpful on that front.

Noticing his phone ring, he put it on speaker.

"Purple Sister, is that you?"

"I noticed that you were calling me. What do you need?"

"Do you see a balloon towing a cardboard box somewhere behind you? That's where our camera equipment is. Snake needs some help getting to you guys because there's high winds blowing him out to Planeptune. Also, I think we have too little footage for anything useful."

"Goodness!"

Out in the distance, a box, spinning 72 rotations a minute, attached to a beige-colored balloon, could be seen with an antenna. The tip of that antenna is pulsing a green light.

Flying back, Nepgear grabbed the box and towed it towards the rest of the group.

"Snake, are you ok?"

The box opened up, revealing a man in his 50s with a red eyepatch and a bandanna.

"Lo le lu lihhi…"

Just as quickly as he said that, the sound of fluid exiting an open pipe came out of his mouth, for the contents of his lunch returned to the presence of oxygen. Ramen noodles and an energy drink.

Then the particulate landed on a Chocopi, minding their own business.

Assuming that the goddesses dumped poop on it, it shaken off the puke and started flying after them, making very angry noises. However, it was fat, slow, and inevitably unable to reach their height. Eventually getting tired out, it landed face-first in a lake.

* * *

Nepgear caught up to Uni, Noire, Uzume, and Neptune, with Snake Hayter in tow. Fortunately for them, the box wasn't stained with his earlier accident.

They landed at the border city to Lowee, Snowfac Metropolis. A large, frozen factory-like building sits at the northern side of the border, and a set of three biodomes sit on the southern side. East there lies a saltwater river, and west lies a mountain range.

It's the most northern city of Planeptune's mainland, and contrasting with the more obviously Planeptune south, the northern half looks Lastation in origin, and holds an enormous cloud server. It's one of Nepgear's favorite cities, but it also has the highest police presence in Planeptune. Not even the capital has as much law enforcers as it. Because of this, it has the lowest crime rate. Despite that, the crimes are usually extremely expensive and even more violent.

This city never existed before Uzume was sealed.

"This city is new. Did Blanc build this?"

"No. Uranus probably did."

Purple heart turned her head to face Uzume.

"This place was here before I was born, and for some reason was always part of Planeptune since."

Hearing an explosion, a group of rampaging robots migrated into the biodomes in the south. One of them created a small gravitational distortion, pulling in loose debris, and then rocketed at high speeds only to get peppered to death by a group of militarized police armed with rifles. Some even carried plasma shotguns. One of them blasted a malfunctioning drone that was circling the biodome like it was some mutated racetrack. Even with the efforts of the police, the damage done to the northernmost dome was enough to winterize it.

"And that's the reason, huh?"

Noire's deadpan remark earned her a frown from Uzume and Nepgear. Nepgear started to protest.

"Noire, do you know what it's like to have a place which nobody else likes but you and the people who live in it? Taking care of this place by ourselves is impossible and they never wanted us to try."

"I don't like this place either, but it's rich in manufacturing, resources, and tourism from other parts of the nation, so it uses that wealth to fund its local police force. I feel like those proceeds are just bribes to make us look the other way, but they never caused problems for anyone else, so I don't really care."

Neptune's remark left Purple Sister looking downcast.

"Neptune, can you hold this for us?"

Grabbing the balloon, Purple Heart obliged.

"Of course, Nepgear."

Immediately Nepgear accelerated off to the city.

* * *

Flying behind the other four CPUs, Uni was scanning the ground for anything unusual.

No yellow stains, no scary armed men in gas masks, not even a fire.

This is more boring than doing paperwork. Catching up to the others, she turned to Uzume.

"Can you get Histoire to check where the dimensional rift should appear?"

Uzume nodded, pressed a button, and pointed in the direction of the mountain range.

Uni decided to fly off in that direction.

"Uni, are you seriously trying to take point? Wait up!"

Looking back, she could see Noire accelerating behind her.


	3. Round One

"I **hate** purple!"

Ayrton is venting his frustration – to nobody in particular. And in Portuguese. After that misadventure in Hyperdimension, he decided that the best way to blow off steam is a nice long jog outside. That is, if the outside of the research facility didn't reach temperatures of -20C. Well, let's get our translator in.

"I can't believe that after all the bloodshed, all of the death that I saw as a peacekeeper, I thought I could get away from it all, all of the violence, as a scientist, but **nooo**, this violet melon-tit **fairy** comes along, breaks the sound barrier and hunts us like mice! **God!** What did I do to deserve this fucking shitshow? Is it because I decided to join an oil drilling team just to get away from the murdered kids in Sudan? Is that what this is about? Well fuck that – and fuck you!"

Thump-thump-thump-thump… Ayrton maintains a brisk pace as he rounds the next fence.

* * *

David's urine remained blue for the last four hours already. Ayrton found that the compounds that make up the airborne particulate contained a lot of copper and gold, and therefore suggested that penicillamine (used to treat poisoning of copper, lead, arsenic, and toxic gold compounds) should be used to chelate that chemical out of the body.

However, that treatment subjects the kidneys and liver to damage, so Edward wanted to use David's time to learn about the other effects of that chemical, considering two humanoids were able to survive these conditions unharmed. Under a strict diet of water, fermented soy products, and vegetables high in zinc, iron, and calcium, the symptom disappeared within 18 hours.

However, it wasn't without complications. David scored 10% lower on intelligence tests while the symptoms persisted, and his blood pressure and blood sugar were dangerously low. To be precise…

"87 mm of mercury systolic, 54 mm diastolic. Lightheadedness too huh? I wonder if that blue stuff found by Ayrton was causing your blood vessels to dilate. You have been reported to have 117 over 78 before the mission, so it was likely not caused by your usual diet. You also consumed a lot of water and salt."

"Well I was going to pee a lot so…"

"**Secondly,** your blood sugar was marked at 57 milligrams per decaliter, which is usually observed in people who take too much insulin medication. You, David, are not on any such medication, are not diabetic, and reported a blood sugar level of 172 mg/dL before the mission started. You eaten an hour before then, isn't that correct?"

"Yes…"

"That being said – if it's okay with you, it would be prudent for us to observe you in isolation for a few days, at least until your blood pressure AND sugar return to normal."

"Can do."

"Also, Dave? Lay off the junk food. Just because you are experiencing these symptoms doesn't mean you have an excuse to pig out on chips, burgers and pie. For an athlete, your blood pressure and sugar **were** remarkably high, so even after this debacle is over, I still have questions for you."

Walking out, Edward heads to his desktop to prepare a presentation of his findings thus far.

* * *

Ranger, still recovering from her experience, went outside to watch the aurora. It was a beautiful day in Antarctica, and despite the night sky being lit only by starlight and ribbons of color, it was half past noon. Back home, the sky would be lit up 24 hours a day this month, but it changed drastically since her childhood. Her family's original residence ended up flooded, and what was once tundra became part of the shoreline. This place is the only location where she can connect back to those days…

And she fears what would happen if something as powerful as Purple Heart comes through the portal.

Unable to hold back tears, she takes in one final look at the night sky before she heads back inside.

* * *

"Ranger! What are those tears for? Nobody's dead, yet. This should be a time of celebration, not of mourning! Come back inside, we got freshies from Chile today!"

"I don't think you'll understand why I'm crying even if I told you."

"Hah. I'm not going to be phased by an insult like that. In fact, I'm going to challenge you to an arm-wrestling match just to prove my honor!"

"I'll break your wrist faster than you'll break our planet."

"Woah. Okay, so much for it being a friendly competition. Something wrong?"

"I thought I told you that you wouldn't understand what I went through. I don't want to talk about it."

Ayrton furrowed his brow at the woman. Their tanned skin and jet-black parkas contrast with their grey hairs, and the white snow in the background.

"I know we have our differences, but if you want me to, I can tell you about why I'm out here in the cold. To be fair, I didn't think that we'd meet each other outside, but I'm rarely out here anyways."

Noticing Ayrton not ranting about "why the fuck is this freeloader here" or some other shit, Ranger brushed off some snow in front of her.

"I wasn't all that happy about what happened last night."

Rolling her eyes at Ayrton's first sex joke of the day, Ranger simply shook her head.

"After finding that purple… _thing_, finding blue shit in the atmospheric samples and then David's suit being breached, I decided to take a jog outside and vent my frustration. And I don't know if you understand but I actually don't like the cold all that much. I'm here because I admire the cause."

Now noticing Ayrton's back at the "why the fuck is this freeloader here" train, Ranger starts standing up.

"Hey, look, I understand if you are upset at me saying that, but I did things I wasn't happy with and I wanted a change from that. I'm sorry. Really."

"So where are you going with this? Are you going to gloat about your stringy muscles?"

"Hey! We succeeded because of my enormous muscles!"

"How exactly did we do that?"

"I pulled out Dave! If my muscles were stringy then how the hell would I do that?"

"Takeshi helped."

Grumbling, Ayrton swiped his feet at the ground. Ranger continued to talk.

"I know all about your past careers. I admire your peacekeeping efforts. But how much do you really know about me? My world is quite literally upside-down now, and in the last two decades of my life I seen callousness, plague, and terrorism. That's why I'm here now, and I want this place to stand strong."

Ranger turned towards Ayrton.

"You feel the ice beneath your feet? Its firmness? And then tomorrow, we can go back outside again, and march alongside the fence? It feels good to me, but how exactly does it feel to you?"

Again, tears are welling up in Ranger's eyes. She left, moving past the cafeteria to her quarters.

"Woah, you got in a fight again?"

E. Fleming, the team's medical specialist, is standing back against the wall near the entrance.

"Well, she didn't hurt me so I don't think it counts as a fight. What's a fight with no blood after all?"

"A fight with no blood can still leave bodies."

"Well if you're going to stand there giving 'sage advice', close the door. I'm not going to pass up on some fresh vegetables, especially in this place. We don't get them every week after all."

* * *

"Wait, so we're going back again?"

Takeshi asking the real questions here. Why the hell would they be going back?

They all received a very long email from the boss, detailing what their next mission would entail.

* * *

They are going to be sent back into Hyperdimension, but hopefully with different spatial coordinates than their initial visit. The last thing that they need is to be spotted and identified by the same monster that they were running away from.

First they are expected to probe the environment to check if there's any hazardous materials aside from the blue particulate they found last time.

Then, if there aren't any unknown materials in the air, they are expected to return home and re-enter with casual outerwear. In order to moderate their blood pressure and blood sugar, they will bring unmarked bottles of Gatorade, and Edward would check these readings once every 2 hours.

They are expected to find any locals and gather intelligence from them. Hopefully they would be lucky and the people in question speak a language that the team knows, i.e. English. Considering that Ranger heard Japanese honorifics, Takeshi Minata is expected to pull double duty and act as the team's interpreter if required. As such, any secret communications would be spoken in another language.

Once every four hours the portal will reopen, and a device is expected to remain at the portal site in order to relay if the portal should remain closed or not. The default setting of that device is "closed", and when the team wants to head back, they should set it back to "open".

A security detail would remain on the other end of the portal in full isolation suits. They will be armed with semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. To avoid getting shot, they need to relay this passcode:

_We hereby discard loyalty to the goddess of death,_

_Forged in magnetism beneath the sea._

_With the highest power under the pledge of Semper Fi,_

_Become as needed in just fidelity._

* * *

"Yeah, that's ominous as hell."

"If you want me to explain what the verses mean, just ask."

Takeshi looked at Ranger with incredulity.

"The first verse references the Inuit spirit of the underworld. The second confirms that reference through a reference to her descent into the arctic sea. The third directly relates to the USMC's motto, and the fourth references the fact that "Fi" is shortened from "Fidelis". I wrote the damn thing…"

"So now we know that our little Ranger is both an edgelord and has a connection to the north pole."

"Minata, stop. Also, Ayrton is being told to stay back at base afterwards, and David's out for the count."

"We're not going to have our chemist on board until we return home, huh."

* * *

Ayrton, Takeshi, Edward, Ranger, and Redjacket were heading out to an unknown location. A drone returned beforehand to confirm that passage was possible.

Immediately Ayrton set out to obtain air samples for analysis. Four hours is enough time to get multiple samples before heading home, and he doesn't want to spend another minute past that. Immediately, he noticed that the place they ended up in was somewhat cold. Not as cold as Antarctica, but cold enough.

"Wow, back to freezing my balls off. Also, there seems to be people over there."

Looking over the hillside, Ranger immediately went prone, uncocked the bolt to her rifle, and stared out through her scope. People were walking outside. Ladies wearing dresses, young men in overalls or shorts, and only a few wearing actual winter coats. Just as interesting as their cold resistance is the fact that none of them have backpacks, purses, or anything to carry, well, stuff.

One of them heading to a shop grabbed a device out of her pocket and materialized what appeared to be a cup of coffee, then sat down and read through the contents of another device, most likely a phone.

Recording as much useful information as she could, she sent hand signals for Redjacket to spot her.

Redjacket instead shaken her head, and motioned Edward and Takeshi over to spot for the two of them, Takeshi only once finished with his post-entry responsibilities.

"Same air composition, just colder and lower pressure. Blue particulate remains in samples."

Ranger acknowledged Ayrton's status by instructing him to take soil samples as well.

* * *

Thirty years beforehand, the following events transpired.

Sanna Arnatsiaq, a young lady in her mid-twenties, came back after a round of hunting to her camp. Capturing a polar bear, she had hauled it on a dogsled for the rest of her family to eat.

She wanted to move to the city to take up higher education, but with her brother dead at fifteen, her dad crippled, and her sister being only twelve, she was the only one capable of bringing protein to the rest of the family. Her family was rather traditional but since her brother's death she had been expected to take up the responsibility of hunting game.

She quickly became good with a rifle, wielding it as deftly as she did a sewing needle. It was an old Lee-Enfield No. 4, considered obsolete to the Canadian Rangers because of their lack of replacement parts. It was passed down from her grandfather, who was a volunteer in the unit.

"You know, if you moved to the city, we wouldn't have anyone to take care of us."

Her mother's words echoed inside her head every time she returned home. Over the hillside, she could make out the nearby city, which housed an airport. The sky has been dark for at least two weeks already, in the total absence of clouds. Only the aurora and the stars lit up the sunless sky.

However, there was one thing odd about this trip home. There was no smoke emanating out of the chimney. Two bodies laid out, frozen, on the ground. Five, no six, heavily armed men wearing camouflaged helmets were approaching the house.

Sensing something's wrong, she takes aim with her scope.

They wore armor that had no resemblance to any Canadian unit. One of them wielded an AN-94, but the other five had M4 carbines. Each of them used the same armor, but the one using the AN-94 used a lot more camouflage. Their insignia was tiny, grey, and written in a language she doesn't understand.

Just then, a missile breached the waters downriver from the city. It helped itself to destroying the largest building there, built for telecommunications and the only link to the outside world. A submarine emerged and fired off a salvo into the skies, which soon littered the arctic metropolis with flames.

Prone near the base of a tree, she observed one of the armed men approach the door.

The enemy's rifle pointed into the house, she had to take her first shot.

* * *

Ranger was re-cocking her rifle when she received a nudge from Edward. Snapping back to reality, she looked back at him, and he was pointing to a formation of colorful objects in the sky.

One of them was Purple Heart.

Pulling her rifle into the underside her body, she motioned to Edward to get everyone into hiding.

Nodding, he rushes over to Ayrton to get winter camouflage on him.

Takeshi, the portal beacon, and Pauline Redjacket were already draped in snow.

Even then, in less than thirty seconds, everyone is invisible.105 minutes to extraction.

The research team, face-down in the snow, can _feel_ the CPUs presence. Heat, strong winds, the snow melting off their backs…

"Shit."

Ranger, noticing the new development, opened the camera feed. They are still hidden, but the amount of snow hiding their bodies is dramatically less than before.

For the survival of her crew, she needed to do something to draw their attention away.

She was the only one that didn't bury herself to hide from the CPUs. Instead, hidden in a tree, her camouflage blending in with the white, but ultraviolet-dark leaves, she leaped off into the snow bank approaching the city. Wasting no time, she takes aim at a series of robots in the distance, and fires.

She missed, but that doesn't matter. She makes a run for the metropolis in the distance.

* * *

**FOOM.**

Uni and Noire turned their heads towards the noise. It's rather quiet at their distance, as Neptune and Uzume remained none the wiser, but the Lastation sisters noticed a figure heading towards Snowfac Metropolis. Upon closer inspection, it's a masked person sprinting to the city.

"Target spotted!"

Uni's reaction got Noire moving at full speed to the human individual.

"Stop right there! Hands in the air, turn around and face me slowly!"

Feigning deafness, Ranger continued to sprint.

Uni followed up with warning shots.

Ranger flipped around, then taken a shot at the gunner CPU.

"How dare you! Volcano Dive!"

Noire shifted her speed downwards, plunging straight towards her human opponent.

("This is how she plans to kill me. Alright, close my distance, change my movement pattern and…")

Fully stopping herself, then diving underneath Black Heart, Ranger dodges the first attack.

("Dangerous as hell but dumber than bricks. Get rid of the gunner first.")

**FOOM.**

Executing a dodge roll, she fires at Uni again. Black Sister attempts to dodge, but gets clipped on her wing, destabilizing her flight and sending her to the ground.

"Shit! Uni!"

Her sword melted the snow it lodged itself into. Pulling it out, she makes a break towards Uni.

Ranger made a break for the city.

* * *

Yellow mist formed around the spot Noire and Uni were fighting. The weather suddenly turned into a blizzard, picking up the dust and dispersing it throughout the region.

Now Neptune and Uzume changed course to the Lastation sisters. Getting caught in the breeze however, they found that they can't maintain their transformations. Losing HDD, Uzume landed feet-first in a tree, while Neptune landed face-first in the snow.

Neptune picked herself up and opened her pocket service to get a pair of sweatpants. Unfortunately, Uzume didn't have any winter gear and climbed down shivering.

"Virus? Why would a weather event have virus?"

"Neptune, stop breaking the fourth wall and look over there."

Neptune shaken off the snow from her hoodie. The wind didn't take long to dissipate, but they were left grounded. Uzume pointed towards the

They see a house, surrounded by several men dressed up, from their perspective, similarly to soldiers from one of Uni's war games. They didn't have gas masks, were armed with wooden and plastic assault rifles, and wearing winter camouflage. On their shoulders were badges written in a language that the CPUs didn't understand, and in front of them lied three bodies, all dressed in brown parkas.

One of those bodies was hanging outside the top floor's window. Limp, holding a dark red rifle, several bullet holes could be made out from his face.

The three bodies reanimated and attempted to maul the six soldiers. One of the gunmen got struck in the neck. Blood that flickered between crimson red and golden yellow sprayed out.

The other five responded by shooting the three zombies. Hit parts of their bodies sprayed the same fluid out into the white snow.

After the zombies were destroyed, the soldiers turned to face the CPUs…


	4. Interlude - Sanna Arnatsiaq

_I was quite frankly excited to introduce a new character into the mix, fitted together with the first arc's mystery._

_This is the point in the story where things get rather politically charged. Politics touch everything, and rather than running away from it I made the design choice to embrace it. To start things off, I am not really a fan of Russian nationalism that is currently the mainstream idea in the country, and I tried to theme the chapter's arc around the abuse of power and secrecy. Any ideas used in this work of fiction are used for drama. I don't expect anyone to agree or disagree with the actions one party made in its entirety. You shouldn't. The CIA had shit going with drug cartels, so what would that say for the FSB? CSIS?_

_People working in earnest for an intelligence agency would one day or another make an amoral decision. Whether it be for personal gain, or vigilante justice._

* * *

_Staring at the waters below, Sanna Arnatsiaq contemplated the creatures that lie in the depths below. Myths of the spirits of the depths intrigued her, especially the one which she's named after. Sedna, effectively the goddess of the sea, marine creatures, and the underworld. She found something interesting washing up the shoreline, a wrecked submarine that dated back almost a century ago, belonging to Nazi Germany. By this point in time, she never seen anything like it, but she had a camera that her dad given her to take pictures with in case she seen anything that she doesn't know what it is._

_Upon seeing it, her grandfather, who was on his last years of life as a priest, given her a story about how a foreign country, under the influence of economic disaster, had been entranced by an incredible evil, and the change in perception that the subsequent war given to shaping it the way it became today. The evil known as fascism was an inevitable one, magnified by industrialized warfare, and has been proven to be incredibly resilient as an ideology in the face of the lessons learned from the war. She was young, barely 12 years old at the time, and the experience of hearing about a story that was born out of human weakness horrified, yet intrigued, her intelligent mind more than the vivid and legendary creation myths that came from her mother._

_She became engrossed in history, and even more interested in the secrets held below the sea level. In a particularly warm summer for the arctic, she tried swimming in the thawed waters off the shoreline. In this effort she almost drowned if not for the fact that she was spotted by a fellow hunter patrolling the riverside on a kayak. She, as a 14-year-old, shared her wish to be able to swim in the freezing waters and find more undiscovered treasures beneath. Her dad decided to entertain the girl's wishes, but on her 17th birthday he was crippled by his own brother. In a drunken rage the perpetrator tried to assault one of the three girls in the house, only to get shot by a revolver in Sanna's hands. Perhaps this story would be told in more detail later, but for now..._

* * *

She landed her shot perfectly, hitting the enemy in the back of their neck, instantly killing him.

Sanna knows that these soldiers are hostile not only to her, but to her family and country. Their presence meant death to the two bodies strewn on the ground in front of her, and the last family member is probably doing all they can to stay alive.

One of the soldiers pulled the pin of a grenade. Rebolting her rifle, Sanna responded by taking him out next. Crumpling to the ground, the other four made a dive to take cover from the resulting explosion.

Two of them were not so lucky, and their bodies were knocked back by half a meter, indisputably dead.

The final two pushed themselves up off the ground. It was enough time for the hunter to ready her rifle for the next shot. However, she can only get rid of one. The other fired his AN-94 at her position, forcing her to take cover. Then, one anomalous shot silenced the last man.

Looking back up, she can see her father, wielding a Colt Canada C19 rifle.

And he looked like he was in the middle of passing out.

Rushing over to her house, she can see her mother and sister, shot to death by unknown forces, their bodies shot in the back and fallen opposite the direction of the river.

Running upstairs, she sees the bodies of two more people, wielding AK-74s and having the same, absurd insignia as the ones outside. Their armor was lighter in weight, but darker in color, being white with streaks of grey and green in the mix.

"That was a submarine division from the Russian federation."

Her father breaking the silence, he motioned over to the dead bodies outside the house.

"The Russian Federation's military mostly consists of conscripts unable to get higher education. These guys were especially stupid, trying to pull a false flag operation by wielding NATO-style weapons."

Tears forming in his eyes, he looked at his wife and his other daughter.

"They wanted to silence us; they murder my sweet girls… I don't want this kind of life anymore."

Looking at what is now his only daughter, he hands her the rifle.

"There isn't enough life in that rifle for what comes up ahead. It's strong and has great pride in it, but there's no replacement parts or ammo anymore. Take one of the M4s and follow me."

Following her dad into the basement, she discovers diving gear.

"Happy birthday, Sanna."

Tears filling her eyes, she puts on the wetsuit.

* * *

Five American scouts, dead.

What they were doing here so deep in Canadian soil, the Russian wouldn't know or care.

If it wasn't for them, they would have almost no assault rifles. The Russian unit _was_ using a new pattern for special forces, imitating new Chinese designs for its higher firepower and much lower cost. Their fancy new rifles weren't tested like the AK-pattern rifles, and they almost paid for it with their lives.

Their mission was simple. The Canadians, increasing military expenditures since 2020, had made a sort of supersoldier, and it was their job to eliminate them and return to Russia with their body.

However, after running into interference from the Americans, which ended up destroying their new rifles, their mission became a lot more complicated. It was unknown if the M4 rifles would be enough stopping power to finish their mission, as rumors circulated that the target was made to be bulletproof.

They have been walking for over two hours already. They see a log cabin, smoke rising out of the building. According to their satellite images and their hopefully accurate cartography, this is where the target resides. In the distance they see two figures shooting rifles at some painted targets.

Anonymity, not stealth, is essential to their mission. He gives clearance to shoot.

* * *

**FOOM  
**_**PCHUCK  
**_**FOOM  
**_**PCHUCK**_

Two gunshots from a weapon that none of the Russians held. Two of them already went inside with their own rifles, while the ones wielding the American weapons or the AN-94 had been waiting outside. Instinctively, some of the soldiers dived down to avoid being shot, and with good judgement.

**FOOM**

Another gunshot rang out, hitting nothing.

The six soldiers outside crawled away from the door, raising their rifles.

"Dmitri, check on the ones inside."

Raising his stolen M4, Dmitri approached the house.

"Man down!"

**FOOM**

Stumbling backwards, Dmitri landed on his back against the snow.

"Clear the house!"

Pulling the grenade pin, another soldier prepared to throw his payload…

**FOOM**

…only to get picked off.

"Get down!"

The resulting explosion terminated two of the other warriors. The only remaining comrade he had left yelped out a scream of panic.

"Enemy sniper!"

**FOOM**

Raising their rifles at the mountainside, he only captured a glint of light before his remaining ally was silenced, never to carry a weapon again.

Opening fire at his target, he shot six two-shot bursts at his target, before adjusting his aim.

**FOOM**

Upon hearing that sound, he feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder blade. Unable to fire his weapon, he feigned death. Whatever taken those shots never missed. He was sure that was the bioweapon that his superiors wanted to be destroyed.

He can hear conversation despite being face-first in the snow. It was in a language that he had rudimentary instruction on, as it was a mother tongue to many in the arctic region of the targeted country, and therefore it was important to know for the operation.

He can make out phrases indicating, in synopsis, that they believe…

**One**, his unit is from the Russian Federation. _(True.)  
_**Two**, soldiers from the Russian Federation were uneducated conscripts. _(Mostly true.)  
_**Three**, his unit was especially stupid and attempted a false flag operation. _((Hopefully, but likely) False.)  
_**Four**, they killed off his immediate family._ (Very, very bad if true.)_

For obvious reasons, points two and three hurt his ego. He was a special operations unit and needed to be actually good at what he was instructed to do. He spent years learning ballistics. He trained physically for this position and wanted to be the best he could be for his nation and country.

And yet, he failed. Miserably.

He can hear the two of them walk inside. After a few minutes, they returned outside. One is headed towards the river. Most likely, to the submarine that he came from.

And the other one is headed towards _him._ And he's speaking in _perfect_ Russian.

"Wake up. I know you're not dead. Unless, you want me to make you that way."

_Cyka Blyat._

* * *

"Now, I am inclined to kill you, but that would be rather… rude. Care to introduce yourself?"

The other, dressed in winter camouflage, said nothing.

"Turn around, hands behind your back."

Compliance precedes a pair of thick, metallic handcuffs strapping the target's wrists. Fiddling with his suit, the elder finds what he's looking for – identification.

"Sergei Rosenbaum."

"Ballistics expert."

With noted incredulity, the old man corrects the youth.

"Prisoner."

With a look of absolute fear on his face, Sergei watched as the Inuk moved to establish eye contact.

"And depending on the circumstances, a war criminal."

* * *

Sergei Rosenbaum is a prisoner to Natar Arnatsiaq, who was formerly a member of Joint Task Force 2. After Natar's father served in the Canadian Rangers, the Armed Forces started a genetic modification project when the civilian government lost trust in its cold war allies. They still needed the United States to engage in diplomatic disputes between their country and larger ones like China and Russia, but many politicians, even New Democrats and Greens, wanted a way to shrug off their influence.

Natar sympathized with the cause and applied to become part of the program. His performance in JTF2 was significantly higher than his contemporaries, and at least a third of his "daughter", Sanna, consisted of his genetic patterns. They still have some samples of his blood available as a backup.

The Prime Minister at the time was adamant about making the supersoldier completely human. Same number of chromosomes. Able to reproduce with others. Reason being that the politician feared creating a monstrosity that would eclipse humans in power and destroy civilization or worse.

Many researchers also feared an "Aryan race" scenario and decided to make the melanin content of any artificial humans emulate that of mixed ancestry as much as possible.

Natar's daughter was an exception to this rule. Not having the confidence to manipulate DNA for superficial purposes, they instead loaded her with the superficial traits of her father. His eyes, hair, and skin are all found in her. They made their first project female to thoroughly test the strength of their product, especially if it is enough to overcome human sexual dimorphism.

Natar given her the name Sanna, which was derivative of Sedna, the Inuit spirit of death.

Sergei was assigned by the Russians to stop this threat and failed.

And to avoid being hanged in a war crime tribunal, he had to divulge the entirety of his mission to Natar.

"So, in order to destroy the legacy I created, you killed my wife, my real daughter, and destroyed my life in the mountains. It is because of you that Sanna would be tested earlier than expected."

"And, it is also because of you that she would know where your vessel is located."

* * *

Sanna was in the cold, arctic waters, swimming towards a submarine.

It wasn't the way that she thought the day would end, but she's moving anyways. The short-barreled rifle that she brought into the house was replaced with an FN P90 that her father kept in the basement.

She also stolen the grenades the soldiers wielded around their belts.

She always wished to be able to go diving or head into space, feel and move about in weightlessness. The sad irony is felt; her wish for a new life was granted at the utter destruction of her old one.

Her prize is simple – sink the submarine, then return back to the surface. Simple doesn't mean easy.

However, it seems like she could take a few shortcuts in the end. The submarine surfaced, dispatching infantry. The infantry's mission is to disable the communications of the main city while the spec ops unit would do their job. This was known because of Sergei being under duress to disclose vital mission information or be tried as a war criminal.

However, before she could even reach the vessel, she was rocked by an explosion originating from its direction. A missile glanced the submarine, sinking it along with everyone still on board.

Sanna decided that she's technically finished what was supposed to be done.

She just wants to go back home.

* * *

"You know, most people in your position would have ended their own lives before saying anything. But you, Sergei, are different. I made sure of that before your mission started."

Natar already turned over the spec ops soldier to a maximum security prison. Sergei's being visited by a woman shrouded in a dark, navy blue jacket. Her skin was pale, free of wrinkles, and complemented with golden yellow hair and icy blue eyes.

"You… you were in the mission briefing, telling us who the target was supposed to be…"

"Now now, Sergei. Listen to your body. To your intuition. Does it not feel good to have someone with the connections to bring you out of here alive?"

**CLANG**

"Why?"

"Why did you talk? Simple. I laced your suits with a device that administers LSD with the press of a button. By the time you were at the target's location, your team is fighting like they are treading water."

"Why did you betray your country? Why would you use us as pawns?"

"Do you think that I would answer a question as simple as that?"

Waving the prisoner away, she walks towards the end of the hall. A guard approaches the holding cell.

"I… want to talk to your superiors. I want to atone for my failures and do what's right."

The guard inspects the doorway for his cell, and turns back around, headed to the security office.


	5. Deity of Seas

45 minutes to reentry. Takeshi Minata, Ayrton Carlos, Pauline Redjacket, and Edward Fleming lie face-down in the snow, waiting for their hunters to leave.

Takeshi heard gunfire at least an hour beforehand, but everything feels silent now. Pistols, assault rifles, definitely from a hostile source, were firing at an unknown target. Howling and crying from what can only be related to as witches from Left 4 Dead followed by mauling sounds preceded it. Ranger's scout rifle fired at least twice before those noises came. Needless to say, he wants a new pair of pants.

He seen Ranger in action. Whatever the hell she is, he doubts she's human.

"Dammit, I miss Dave. I know he's alive, but I really want to talk to him right now."

"Elect to scout surroundings?"

"Yea." "Ok." "Yes."

Peeking their heads up, Ayrton noticed a log cabin propped up where the portal was supposed to go.

"You see this shit?"

"Yea." "Definitely." "Yes."

"Head inside?"

"Nay." "Fuck that." "No."

"Spot?"

"Yea." "No." "Sure."

"Three to one, Pauline."

Heading inside and brandishing his revolver, Ayrton activates its attached flashlight.

Two corpses. Both wearing Russian-origin insignia, and wielded AK-74M rifles.

Continuing his careful pace, he moves past the two bodies.

* * *

"Snake, what the _hell_ is that?"

Five nightmare-men, armed with assault rifles, turned towards the CPUs.

One of them raised their weapon.

"Hostiles."

Grabbing his pistol, Snake Hayter shot at the violent creature.

Neptune is far too distant to use her sword, so she takes out a pistol of her own.

**TCHICK TCHICK TCHICK**

**BANG BANG BANG**

Three of the bodies disintegrated into orange dust. Two courtesy of the goddess, one by box-man.

The other two decided to charge their opponents while shooting automatic fire at them. Neptune and Snake were hit by the resulting gunfire.

Uzume decided to punch one of them into submission.

Rushing in the blink of an eye, she knocked down the enemy furthest from the group, then landed a flurry of punches until it too disintegrated. However, the survivor was aiming down his rifle at the redhead goddess, ready to tear her a new one when…

"Cross Combination!"

One, two, no, five slashes struck her target, the last one launching it into the air. Neptune attempted a sixth slash to launch it into the ground, but at this point it dissipated into the wind.

* * *

Neptune and Uzume have thought about entering the log cabin lying in front of them. Pitch black inside, with a light emanating from the back revealing what appears to be stairs.

Neptune taken her wooden sword and hacked at the doorway. Pulling it out, it was sheathed in golden yellow dust. Uzume took a look at it, then stepped back away from the house.

"Nepsy, we have to destroy this thing."

Neptune turned to Uzume, with a look of complete incredulity.

"As long as it remains here, we can't transform. Do you understand?"

Unsheathing her megaphone, Uzume prepared to do just that.

"Wait, Uzume, are you absolutely sure that you can do this by yourself?"

Looking at her megaphone, then at Neptune, Uzume looks like she heard something stupid.

"What the hell you mean Neptune? Are you not confident with my abilities?"

"I just don't think that it's cool if you cause an avalanche."

Looking around the mountain range, she puts away her weapon.

"Okay, what's your plan?"

"We burn it."

A look of utter shock and horror filled the redhead's eyes.

Snake Hayter popped out of his box.

"I have a lighter! Uh… but I don't want to set my box on fire."

"Ooh!~ Uzume finds your face so super cute!~"

Dropping his lighter into the snow, Snake Hayter had a look of complete shock on his face.

"I never get truly used to that either, Snake. Also, what are you doing outside your box?"

In a flash, he crumpled back into his safe space. The box lid closed up and everything.

"Hey! I didn't mean you have to stay in there!"

Letting out a sigh, Neptune picked up the lighter and tried to start a fire.

"Come… on… you… infernal…"

Grabbing the lighter out of her hand, Uzume tried giving it a strike.

"Damn… fucking… ass…"

"Uh, I think I was out of lighter fluid. I can't find any spares on me either…"

"**Shit!"**

"Maybe there's lighter fluid in there?"

"Ooh and pudding, and hot chocolate!"

Upon hearing the words "hot chocolate" Uzume had that sparkle in her eyes whenever she starts fantasizing about stuff.

"Oh yes!~ Pudding and hot chocolate and cookies!~ We would light a nice warm fire instead of being out in the cold all day and we would find awesome-looking winter jackets made of the warmest stuff in Planeptune!~ Then we'll have a slumber party where…"

Having an annoyed look on her face, Neptune turned towards the cardboard box beside her.

"Home Security, stop recording whenever Uzume does this, she'll kill me if she sees this online."

Almost jumping out of his chair, Home Security opened up a Hero Sausage advertisement featuring Purple Heart and Nepgear.

"Oh, are you able to hack into the rampaging bots over at Snowfac Metropolis?"

"I think I should ask Nepgear before trying something like that actually. Give me some time."

("Come on Nepgear, pick up…")

* * *

In order to fulfill the prophecy that Uzume laid out, Neptune went inside, looking for lighter fluid, hot chocolate powder, pudding, cookies, and at least one "awesome" winter-equipped jacket (not "cool" probably because of the weather doing things she'd rather not think about) so that…

"If I don't get an "awesome" looking jacket I don't know if my save would be corrupted or something. Ugh, why can't I just get Uzume in here?"

Venturing into the tiny closet, Neptune had an idea.

Still trying to use the lighter, Uzume was surprised to have a dirty, scratched up old parka land on the backside of her head. Struggling to get out of the mess of bloodstains, old fur, and what she imagined to be fleas, Uzume let out her indignation at the situation she's in.

"Nepsy, what the **hell!**"

"~Uzume!"

Finally getting out of that mess, Uzume looked up to find Neptune waving a heavy winter jacket.

"You want this?"

"**No!"**

In response, Neptune let go of the garment, blanketing Uzume in what felt like plastic-wrapped fluff.

"**Nepsy if you don't quit doing that I will make you wish you did!"**

"Well why don't you look through these clothes yourself?"

"Yep, definitely going under "deleted scenes" right there."

Home Security's phone was ringing again. He put it on speaker.

"H-S?"

"Purple Sister? I called in case you needed help getting those robots back in control. I'm not an expert at hacking but I'll try my best to-"

"Don't worry about it. We already have someone on the case. I'm just making sure that none of the citizens get hurt by their behavior."

Zooming past her was a police officer riding a motorcycle to the hot zone.

"Nepgear? You're not in HDD?"

"Why would I have to be? They need a protector, not a dragon slayer."

Neptune, Uzume, and Snake Hayter were all upstairs, scrounging through someone's personal belongings just to get winter wear for Orange Heart and lighter fluid for demolishing the house.

Neptune already got some instant cocoa mix, pudding cups, and a box of cookies. She put it all in her pocket device and was looking for the lighter fluid so that they can at least start a fire.

* * *

Ayrton approaches the stairs. The house looks clearly ransacked at this point, and claw marks made by what appears to be human hands marred up the walls.

Behind him he can hear two bodies shifting upwards. Turning around, he notices their appearance changed from that of Russian infantry, to armed men in _UN peacekeeper uniforms_.

One had a face he is very familiar with. The other… was _him._

And the other _him_ held a weapon that is none other than a _flamethrower_.

* * *

"Okay Nepsy, I'm done."

Wearing a thick leather flight jacket, an indigo scarf, thick, deep blue jeans, a black pair of boots and leather gloves, Orange Heart walks out of the closet holding a pair of blue goggles and a black helmet.

She even dyed her hair blue.

"Uzume, when you dress up like that you look like K-"

"_I know."_

Kurome's voice. Wow. Falling flat on her ass, Neptune scurried against the back wall beside the stairs.

"Uh, Kurome, what's that red mark on your shoulder?"

Brushing it a bit, it slowly changed to a Planeptune emblem.

"_An artifact of the dream that made this place. Now, I told you I'd make you regret-"_

Two loud gunshots rang out from below.

"**FUCK!"**

Running downstairs, Uzume, Neptune, and Snake Hayter faced three men. One of them had a revolver that was covered in red-orange flickering blood, while the other two had their weapons pointed through the doorway outside. The gunslinger had pointed his gun, and lit his flashlight, at the two CPUs.

"**Hands in the air and don't fucking move!"**

Immediately after hearing the utterance of those words, the two outside pointed their weapons at the group. One was a small pistol with a laser sight attached. The other had a suppressor.

And almost immediately, a portal opened inside the house.

* * *

**BANG PTCHACK PTCHACK BANG BANG PTCHAK**

"What the fuck is she made out of, some kind of metal?"

After getting several successive (useless) headshots on Kurome, Takeshi noticed Neptune try to pull out… _something_. Reacting quickly, he shot the violet-haired girl as quickly as possible while shouting profanities. Two bullets in her arm was enough to make her assume a surrendering position again.

Looking for a stronger weapon, he set his eyes to the ground. A flamethrower looks attractive, but he's not an expert with fire-based weapons. The AN-94 is jammed, and field stripping it is impossible in this time frame. But beside the AN-94 lies several RGN grenades. High explosive, 4-10m kill radius.

Eddie relayed a message to the base at home in another language the CPUs don't understand.

"Close the portal! Reopen in quarter time!"

Therefore, the clock resets to 60 minutes before reentry.

Looking back at Eddie, Kurome noticed that the portal behind her is starting to close.

"Kurome, no!"

Despite Neptune's pleas, Kurome ignored her previous target and rushed the portal.

"Open fire!"

Shotguns and rifles shot through the opening of the portal, and the force is enough to knock the CPU flat on her ass. Ayrton could be seen, with a reloaded revolver and approaching the flamethrower, and aiming his weapon directly at the CPU. Kurome attempts another rush but passed out on her face.

"Oh, she can turn off the blue. And unlike you, she doesn't need a bottle."

Looking towards Takeshi, Ayrton had an absolutely mischievous smirk on his face.

"Shut up, Ricardo."

"**Ha.** Anyways, since you, violet, didn't throw a hissy fit like Ms. Black and Blue, would you like anything? Coffee, sports drinks, first aid? Because I think you and I are going to be sticking around here a while. I also really don't want another set of teeth."

"Wait, are you going to pull out her teeth?"

"**WHAT.** No! **Fuck no!** She punched me in the face, what if I have to get dentures because of that?"

* * *

Neptune is in a tight spot.

Kurome somehow came back, Snake Hayter was cowering in his cardboard box in the attic…

**PTSH**

"Hands in the air and do not move!"

Nevermind, he _was_ cowering in his box and got caught.

"I wasn't even moving how did you find me?!"

"You think we are _**that stupid?!"**_

Now they sound angry.

"You shot me through a wall!"

"Walls are worthless! Disarm yourself!"

"Alpha Romeo!"

**WHUMP**

"He has a weapon!"

"Neptune **run!"**

Taking his cue but ignoring his command (she's a goddess after all) she tried to talk to one of the people that was not engaged in tearing Snake Hayter's favorite box to shreds.

"Do you really have to do that?"

Takeshi was operating a miniature bomb squad drone, trying to pick off Uzume's visual radio. The goddess still unconscious, he was successful in dismantling the device from her wrist.

"Probably not. Why?"

"Do you really think that you can worm out of my jujitsu, you old fart?"

Ayrton's pinning down Mr. Hayter on the top floor.

"Put handcuffs on him, damn it!"

Neptune was noticeably worried.

"He likes his box a bit too much; I don't want to know what would happen if he is forced out of it."

"Okay, seriously, show me your arm. I know that two rounds went into it."

Neptune showed Takeshi her left arm. It was scuffed by bullet marks, but no puncture wounds.

However, there was a lot of bruising.

"This needs some ice. It should be fine after a couple of days."

Speaking in Inuktitut, Takeshi relays some information to the rest of his team.

"Captive status – abnormal behavior. No blood or puncture wounds found."

"Of course! That's the plan. False hope upon false hope."

"If you say so. Debrief responsibility now yours."

_If Neptune translates this without some in-universe justification I will revisit that scene with Nepgear's formal clothes and add some Iris Heart lily rank grinding to the story's script._

"Warning received."

Glad we are on the same page. You're playing poker. Don't look at other players' hands.

"I thought you hated gambling."

You know what I'm talking about. Now go nap or something.

* * *

Kurome is lying face first on a wooden floor.

Uzume decided to let _her_ personality and mentality come through in a desperate effort to resolve the situation quickly. She hated the cold, and Neptune's behavior only exacerbated the situation for her.

Kurome was given a second chance at life, and she feels like they are going to die out here.

Even at level 100, she didn't predict that the portal would literally shoot her.

She needs time, at least enough time to liquidate the energy that brought this nightmare house to life, let Neptune transform, and tear these freaks to shreds.

But first, what is that wet sensation on her stomach?

Is she bleeding?

Uzume. Wake up.

* * *

Neptune's sitting quietly. She knows that she'd win a one-on-one fight with these people, especially at close range, but what she doesn't know (for the sake of narrative) is what's disturbing her.

Why did she and Uzume lose HDD? Who were these people? What is their motive?

Why do they look at her like she's insane? How should she break the fourth wall in this story?

('You know I can still hear you, right?')

At least she answered _one_ of those questions. Maybe two. Either way, if she wants those questions answered, she needs these people alive for a few more hours.

* * *

Takeshi was fiddling with the device that he found on Uzume's wrist. The communication device has turned out to be very useful. Latin characters, a global positioning system, and a map.

That's all he needed. All the selfies and whatnot are just north of useless to him.

However, he has a hypothesis as to why Uzume is effectively bulletproof.

Setting his drone up with a very strong electromagnet, he moves it to Uzume's body again.

"What are you doing?"

Neptune was on the other end of the room, alongside Snake Hayter, who was handcuffed to the window with a box over his head. Since Neptune wasn't being aggressive, they didn't see a reason to cuff her.

"Nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"I'm not that inclined to tell complete strangers any intel, especially if I can't tie them to a name."

_BZZT_

The drone's magnet reacted with something on Uzume's clothes. Smoke came out of the magnet itself, not the robot or the offending object.

'I need Redjacket for this but the last thing I want to do is lose our sniper to whatever this monster is.'

"Okay, Violet. Name's Takeshi Minata. Might as well give you ID since I'm probably going to die soon."

Moving his weapon underneath his jacket, he started to pat down Uzume, looking for the device that caused his robot to react in such an unusual manner.

Heavy bruising covered Uzume's body. Even if she was bulletproof, her lack of share energy and cold tolerance taken a heavy toll on her. She's still breathing, but with all the internal bleeding it's a safe bet for human medical techniques that she should be hospitalized by now.

**PZZAT**

Takeshi fired a round into Uzume's arm. The bullet was stopped by some kind of electromagnetic armor, sending unnerving sensations throughout the assailant's body as it activated.

What makes things worse is that it felt like the electromagnetism was coming from _inside_ her body.

"What the hell? Ed, get a sample or something."

Moving quickly over to the body, Fleming went to take a sample of the CPU's bloodstream.

The needle barely penetrated her skin, and got very little blood, but it was more than enough to cause Takeshi to jump back in horror. The syringe came back with a fluorescent indigo hue.

"What the fuck! That blue copper-gold liquid **shit** is what pushes her nutrients around?"

Ayrton needed to intervene, _fast_.

"Minata! Fleming! Don't jump to conclusions like that! I don't want to know the consequences of you two becoming limpdicks at a critical time like this!"

Neptune understood every word that they said.

"Woah."

"Damn it! Don't you dare move, Neptune!"

"Neptune? That's a strange name for a lady."

"Have you been listening to a **damn** thing in our last excursion, Fleming? Did you even **look** at the body cam footage we shot before?"

"I don't know, maybe I forgot with all the **monitoring** I was supposed to do on David's health!"

"Forget it. Neptune, what the **fuck** is it with you and Kurome?"

"Minata, that's not necessary."

The portal reopened. Ranger and Redjacket stand in the doorway, rifles pointed at the two CPUs.

"How convenient. We are going home."

"You left your stuff? Why?"

"Who said I did?"

Pressing a button on an unusual device, she deployed all of her things from hammerspace.

"When I said valuable intelligence, I don't throw shit around. Neptune, take your shit and get out. Now."

Neptune, for the first time to the research team, displayed rebellious determination on her face.

"I don't think so."

"I won't say this again. Take those two unconscious bums and leave."

"Do you think I would be that easy to control?"

With Neptune walking towards Ranger, she readies a shot.

_CLICK_

Neptune is immersed in cyan blue light.


	6. Magic without Understanding

72 mm systolic, 41 mm diastolic.

**That** is Ranger's blood pressure right now.

Taking off her mask and chugging bottles of Gatorade as her life depended on it, she looked back only to see Noire using a blue, misshapen crystal in an attempt to revive Uni. She notices that the crystal appears to be made out of the exact same chemical that Ayrton found in the atmosphere. Going prone and observing them through her scope, she sees the effects of the treatment, as Uni rises out of the snow, picking up her machine gun.

For the sake of her own survival, she takes a warning shot into the snow.

**FOOM. PCHUCK.**

("They speak English. Let's see if they understand my demands.")

"Disarm yourselves, or I will strike you."

Looking at each other, the black-haired girls complied with her demand.

("Dammit, I'm bluffing. My magazine's dry and I feel like I could pass out.")

"Now, hands in the air, as high as you can."

Taking another drink, Ranger approached the two CPUs.

Noire could feel pure malice emanating from the marksman approaching her. Fear, anger, marinated in adrenaline and peppered with endorphins. It was a feeling that she never sensed since the end of the console wars. For Uni, however, this is new. She could feel several stacks of viral procs coursing through her veins, and it's incredibly difficult to maintain HDD.

Violence begets violence, and she feels like violence incarnate.

And as she moves closer, it becomes clear that she's quite probably female.

Noire didn't get that good a look of her face. Covered with a scarf, drenched in sweat, what could be made out is the fact that she has brown eyes, deeply tanned skin that somehow doesn't react to the freezing temperatures outside, and salt-and-pepper hair.

What's most striking is the contrast between the two women. Noire, wearing a frilly skirt, wielding a sword and high heels, looks very different, almost alien, to the woman wearing an almost androgynous suit of what looks like heavy insulation, perhaps even body armor, coupled with a large backpack, a bandolier of things between ammunition to medical equipment, and finally what looks to be an axe.

An axe shorter than her arm, but longer than her thigh, with what looks like a crowbar at the end.

Her camouflage, rifle, and axe are definitely not of a design that any of the four nations conceived. Disruptively patterned, white camouflage peppered with black dots and in almost hexagonal pattern, alongside a bolt-action rifle with a reddish-brown wooden stock. It has modifications that appear to be an attempt at making a free-floating barrel, sporting a white, plastic foregrip screwed onto the front.

None of the four nations in Hyperdimension use red. Lowee never used rifles of this design in any dimension she knows of.

She was **definitely** not of this world.

"You… you're not from around here are you?"

"Oh? You care to enlighten me about something yourself? Or, would that have to be part of the conditions for your release?"

Noire is starting to see why IF doesn't like their oracle, Kei.

* * *

Uni is scared. She feels something emanate from the figure dressed in strange clothing. Fast enough to dodge Noire's volcano dive, accurate enough to hit her in the air, she feels very negative emotions coming from the person. Is she human? Is she some other world's CPU?

"Oh? You care to enlighten me about something yourself? Or, would that have to be part of the conditions for your release?"

The sense that Uni is getting from this person is nothing short of confusing. Anger, fear, and tension, Uni's youth is reason enough for her to not understand the feeling of these emotions emanating off her quarry. Even worse was the fact that she feels share energy being leeched out of her.

"Faces in the dirt. Don't try any shit."

Noire shaken her head in noncompliance.

"I don't think you understand the situation here. Lie on your stomach, or I will make you."

Flourishing her axe, she traces a semicircle around the two CPUs with her footsteps. She takes a swing…

"Don't even think about turning around."

…and abruptly brakes, her one-handed strike just millimeters before she would have struck Uni's neck.

"Unless you want to test my metal."

* * *

Nepgear had been at Snowfac Metropolis for at least two hours. The cause of the robotics malfunction has been discovered and remedied, turning the policing machines to a docile state.

She isn't in HDD. Why would she be? The threat is over with.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Nepgear decided that after this was over, she would come back here for some tourism. She's not too interested in the biodomes on the southern half, but the server farms and factories in the north just can't be ignored. The last time she went she toured a server farm that had a very fast transit device. Tsunemi, one of Planeptune's governors, showed the CPUs, Ryuka (another Planeptune governor), IF, and Compa how to use that device.

They were instructed by Tsunemi to strap into a specialized vest, then showed them how to choose a drop-off point. The vest enveloped its passengers in a forcefield, then shuttled them at high G-forces to a large bay overlooking the rest of the facility. Neptune was too small to be gripped by the vest under normal means. She surprisingly kept her grip until she reached the balcony, which then left her skidding across the floor. Bent pieces of wire-mesh metal required parts of the floor to be replaced.

Ryuka was piss-riding drunk when she rode on it. She also taken the liberty to puke all over the places that Neptune skid over. Liquor bottle in hand, she staggered over to one of the younger male workers.

"Liquor before beer, you're in the clear. Liquor before 4Gs of force, feel like you got fucked by a horse."

Then she fell on her face, destroying her booze.

It was, in fact, Tsunemi that given the other governor that booze. Suspicious of Ryuka and believing that she'd use the tools present here to ramp up her capital's gambling businesses, she decided to make her as drunk as possible, just so she doesn't come up with any ideas.

"Wheee…"

It doesn't help that Ryuka, a week beforehand, had to deal with another attempt on her life after the trial of Robert K, allegedly the leader of an infamous human trafficking cartel, the Vision of Tari. They stole Planeptune technology, and even Affimax had a run-in with them. Rei Ryghts of Hyperdimension was assaulted by members of that cult in an attempt to use her body.

Rei at this point retired from political life and became a roller coaster engineer. It was miles better than dealing with occult CPU crap that put her in service of the reconstruction of Planeptune's capital.

And she designed that little "ride" that was supposed to be used by fellow engineers like her, and she's outright scared at the two passed out ladies that dismounted it.

Neptune, a CPU that, metaphorically, sent her to a gulag.

And Ryuka, a governor that has more in common with a gang leader than a politician.

She didn't ask if they were okay. She just fainted, her face becoming as pale as her hair.

"Hey, narrator, don't you think you should go back to Nepgear? Exposition is nice and all but the way this looks you're not going to get back to the action."

Wait, aren't you supposed to be held up by three dudes in a log cabin out in the snow?

"Look, do you really think that four OCs really have the power to handle me? Or one OC having the power to hold up Uni and Noire? I smell bad writing."

"Neptune what are you talking about?"

Oh. That's Nepgear's voice. Give me a second.

Nepgear has mastered the "Formal Allure" ability!

"Are you trying to hide spoilers from the main cast now?"

**Yes.**

As soon as Nepgear heard that prompt, she was enveloped in a navy blue shirt, with a purple tie. She was also wearing short pants and a strapped-on holster for her N-Gear device, as well as a tablet watch.

"Okay, one – you are going too far with this 'pants' thing. You gave Uzume jeans, and now Nepgear has starchy old pants on her legs. Isn't there supposed to be a contrast between Hyperdimension and Earth clothes? Also she looks too much like Rei right now."

Rei has a fucking **skull** motif, a jacket, and a **skirt**. Why, what does Conquest Nepgear have in Chaos Champuru? Enlighten me here, because I only seen fanart so far.

"Your writing is as bad as Blanc's."

**Either way**, the commotion was enough to get a few beta males-

"Like yourself."

-as I was saying, a few submissive types to whip out their N-Gears and take pictures. Nepgear looks mature, modern, and dominating. Her tits aren't as enormous as Iris Heart's but even then, some guys are trying to ask the **freaking CPU** out on a date.

In comparison, Neptune looks like a _toddler._

"Do you want to be fired?"

You fire me and the author would kill you off before the chapter ends.

"Oh, the author would probably be fine with that. After all, he's a fan of Shadows of the Heart."

"Neptune, what the goodness are you doing! I'm being chased by these engineer guys asking me to autograph these pictures and you're spewing meta?!"

You forgotten about your older sister again, Neptune.

"When are you going to show the OCs what a CPU really is?"

In time.

"Is Plutia coming?"

No.

"_What?!_ She'd fit in with this whole nightmare-fueled adventure!"

"Hey boys, she's into hardware, not software!"

Fine. Plutia-oops I mean-Iris Heart is here, along with Peashy. Peashy, shut Neptune up.

"Pea!"

Alright, Neptune's knocked out cold. Just get this tweezer-like apparatus to pick up Ryuka and drop her onto the CPU. I have to thank Rei for making this a thing.

"I have to say Neptune, I really, really like you when you go HDD. Those nice curves, that serious attitude… you know how to make people feel nice and take all the pleasure in-"

* * *

"Who, and _what_, are you?"

Ranger still has her rifle pointed at the gunner CPU. The weather is nothing. The atmosphere on the other hand is draining her, literally. Her blood sugar is really low, and her blood pressure isn't returning to normal. And, she's feeling very tense. Emotions are dangerous to rely on. They ask the right questions, but never give the correct answers.

"I am the CPU of Lastation, and Uni is my CPU Candidate."

Again, she drinks some of the Gatorade that she brought to the dimension. She knew that diving under Noire is what caused her isolation suit to fail, therefore she taken off her mask.

Another blizzard waved past the three fighters. Noire attempted to turn around, only to have Ranger poke the back of her spine with her rifle. Returning to facing forwards, Noire hears another question.

"Now, are you going to lie down or not?"

The two responded by going prone and tried to reach for their weapons. Ranger already kicked them away and noticed their futile attempt.

"As I said before, **don't** try any shit. Answer my questions and you will be free. You have my promise."

Ranger kicked up some snow, the white powder landing underneath their skirts.

"You call yourselves CPUs. Unless my acronyms are wrong, that doesn't make sense. Explain."

"A Console Patron Unit is the goddess of a nation. In Lastation, that is me…"

"I know that. What does the CPU do for the nation? Is he responsible for making the laws, passing judgement, and/or enforcement? What is the scale of your power?"

"We do everything!"

Ranger's emotion changed dramatically. Before, they sensed a mix of emotions, all of which are negative. But now, it was pure, full of purpose, and made Uni squirm in fear.

Uni sensed _bloodlust_.

Ranger, after noticing the CPUs react to her state of mind alone, taken one of the chelation pills out of her emergency supplies and downed it with a bottle of her sports drink. She then returned her mask to her face, making it sound as audible as she could. In an electronically distorted tone, she responds.

"So, you rule. Period. As a _dictatorship_ then."

Noire sensed the hatred behind her words and tried to find an out.

"No! We only ratify laws and are expected to be the strongest fighting force in our nations!"

The CPUs felt her bloodlust fade, replaced by a void. No emotion. Not even the slightest interest.

"Now, enlighten me about the others. I counted _five_, and I see _two_."

* * *

Nepgear sees someone in civilian-looking clothes, carrying a busted robot on his back.

This robot wasn't like the others. Brass in color, it had been clearly disassembled in some way.

"Lady Purple Sister!"

Nepgear turned her head around to face one of the officers. But above the horizon she could see something frightening.

A missile is heading straight for the server farm.

"What the goodness? Why can't I transform!"

Her share energy is dropping drastically.

"Damn it! If you don't have faith at least give me will! **Will** me to transform, please!"

With two of the officers looking at each other, they stand beside Nepgear, aiming their patrol rifles at the rocket. Finally able to turn on HDD, Nepgear aims her MPBL, and fires.

* * *

Noire heard a distant, but loud, explosion.

Face-down in the snow, she was answering her assailant's biggest question with nervousness and fear. She felt like a viral mob but had the sentience, intelligence, and form of a human.

And not like those GK rats or anything. An actual, honest-to-goodness human.

It was at least ten minutes since she was told to list off the three other CPUs in her group. Her questions started to turn towards how the CPUs are able to use their powers.

Either way, the explosion interrupted their conversation.

Noire looked up to see what caused it.

And the first thing she noticed was that there wasn't a rifle poking her ass this time. In fact…

"What the hell!"

Behind them was a radio strapped to Noire's sword. The blade was buried deep in the snow, and the hilt was taped to the electrical device.

Into the distance, they can see a trail of footsteps heading towards the city. Ranger is gone.

In two minutes, Ranger would send a signal to the radio to emit a very loud noise. This is both to distract her opponents as much as it is to locate them. Hopefully she can use the chaos to move south and back west again to regroup. She wants to leave as soon as possible, not least because of her body failing.

Nearby, she sees someone carrying around a brass robot. In the distance, she can see Nepgear.

* * *

92 systolic, 61 diastolic. Blood sugar is at 80 mg/dL.

The chelation pill is doing its job, but the research team only had a single bottle on hand. It wasn't very large, but it's there because it's on the WHO's list of essential medicines.

Ranger feels like she could pass out any time, but she must keep running. The CPUs are beyond her line of sight. She must find a way to lose them in the city and move back to home plate.

It taken a lot of effort to mask her noise, but it was worth it. She was able to get a good sprint in the last five minutes before Noire caught wind of her deception.

So, the identities of the CPUs that are present in her party are Noire, Uni, Nepgear, Neptune, and Uzume. Uni and Nepgear are what they call "CPU candidates", apparently present in the case that Neptune and Noire were destroyed through external means. Being a CPU also doesn't seem to be a permanent affair but grants the entity immortality either way, as was the case with Uzume.

CPUs generate their power through "shares", which is generated based off of the faith of the people.

"Technology, no matter how primitive…"

Ranger concluded that the CPUs govern a world where the technology that they are using is beyond their understanding. A remnant, forgotten, from an earlier time.

The fact that the governance of the people is shaped around this disturbs her greatly.

The fact that several terms related to the function of this forgotten technology can be derived off of modern-day language disturbs her even more.

On the positive side, she was able to find a sewage pipe on the main road.

The sewers are surprisingly spacious too, almost as if people are supposed to transit here.

* * *

"Today is a horrible, horrible day!"

Linda was exhausted after running away from both man and machine. The signal interpreter that she has from Vision of Tari stated that Planeptune's national guard was headed to the border city. Neptune's management of the military was minimal, but the national guard was the only force that had the same level of armament per person as Leanbox's military, even if it used different technologies.

And they said they would arrive in two hours.

Even if it was small, if the national guard was in the city, she would never be able to get out.

Filyn, the person that brought the job to her from the Vision of Tari, was waiting for her north of Snowfac Metropolis, but there's too much heat to move there now.

In order to throw off their trail, she's going to have to move to the southernmost part of the city, then move via the sewers to the north.

Stealing Planeptune's technology is turning out to be a real pain in the ass.

She spots an unattended vehicle.

"Don't mind if I do."

* * *

**FWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWOOPFWOOP**

Nepgear can hear that noise coming from the southeast. It's definitely a vehicular alarm.

Reaching the source of the noise she comes across a burning truck, with a large amount of _stuff_ inside.

**FWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWEEP**

"Everybody get back!"

**FWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWEEP**

"Mmfh! Mmfh!"

* * *

'It looks like I don't have much time left for this medicine. Also, isn't it ridiculously warm in here?'

Ranger is approaching the southern sections of the sewage system. Strong, artificial winds blow warm air downstream, and the place is downright humid. On the bright side, she was able to get a change of clothes that would help her blend in with the rest of the citizens. Even still, she's encumbered by her backpack, loaded with medical supplies and weapons.

She travelled 100 meters to the right of where she needs to be, as Noire was shown to be travelling left.

Her blood pressure and sugar concentrations are stabilized again, so what she needs is to start backtracking. Noticing a manhole above, she starts her ascent.

When she comes out, she sees a person repairing a vehicle. Doubtful that the hooded figure is engaged in anything legal (the habit of looking over their shoulder doesn't help much) she formulates a plan.

* * *

Linda was finished with fixing her new ride. Again. Close the trunk.

The security system was one of the worst in the current market. It was a breeze breaking in and changing some settings to make it hers.

However, it's on the verge of breaking down, and a large police presence has put her on edge. Turns out, a large quantity of robots took the rampage to the biodomes there, even winterizing one of them. She needs to fix the machine so that she can take a detour eastward.

Linda may be affiliated with the Vision of Tari, but she isn't at all loyal. She already gutted the good parts of the machine to pirate its design and sell components for it on the black market. What she sees in the Vision of Tari is an ideology, not a business partner.

And she's solely focused on business. She won't make the same mistake twice. Partnering with an omnicidal maniac in a clear imbalance of power was terrible for her mental state.

Not to mention the fact that the only thing she invented was appropriated by everyone else, including them. Criminals loved her illegal device and exploited it to launder billions of dollars in revenue.

Linda knew she had talent. She lacked the resources to use that talent. She was born poor, and both governments and crime bosses want her to remain poor.

She was already familiar with the reality that Filyn sent her on what essentially is a suicide mission.

She would show that pink midget up by coming back alive.

She turned around once more, to check if any cops were on patrol.

She saw a shadow of someone's boot.

She got knocked to the ground, flat on her back.

Adrenaline coursing through her veins, she forms her weapon, a bent-up pipe. Even then, it got knocked out of her hands with her opponent's axe. The figure poises for a second strike, straight for her ribs.

Linda responded with a kick in the same place.

"You think I'll let a bounty hunter like you take me in?"

"So, you're a wanted criminal? That's too bad, because now you're useless to me!"

The figure, having an unmistakably female voice but wearing clothes she never seen before, lands another kick in her face, sending her careening to the alley behind them.

'She's fast.'

Linda didn't even have time to roll back before the blunt end of the axe breaks her left shoulder blade. Pain coursed through her body, and Linda is rendered unconscious.

When she came to, she sees her ride. Behind her, her _stuff._

Her arms and legs are bound together, and her mouth tastes what she thinks is her shirt.

Even worse, she sees _Nepgear._

* * *

**CRUMP.**

89 over 58, 79 mg/dL.

Electrolyte fluid, down throat.

_PANT, PANT_

Time to debrief on that little operation.

Subject unconscious. Arrest movement.

Found device. Appears to be some kind of storage system. Clean it out and try to put your stuff inside.

Test – item storage and recovery. Empty bottle dematerialized. Reformed lost object.

Put subject in trunk, along with a bag of her stuff in the back seat.

'It feels like my body wants to kill me for that…'

Ranger stores the rest of her stuff in the device. Unencumbered by the weight of her backpack, wearing a thick sweater and pants, and free of weapons, she starts up the vehicle's engines. She's going to take it as far away from the main site as possible, then turn it into a distraction to move eyes away from her.

This, combined with her dramatically different appearance, should be enough to sneak past the CPUs and head back home.

'I spent far too long in those damn sewers. The portal already opened by now and it's likely shut again. However, the transponder is still online, and most of the research team is still present. Time to say hello again. They better understand my message, because I think I'm going to be here for a few more hours.'

"Takeshi, do you read me? I acquired valuable intelligence saving your asses and want to return home. Please shorten the portal's frequency to two hours. My mask is broken and I'm running out of meds."

"Recorded and understood. Stay safe."

* * *

**FWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWEEP**

The burning vehicle looked like it was about to explode.

Linda is desperately trying to unlock her cuffs. She needed something, anything, to get distance between her and the CPU. It felt futile. She felt like she's going to die horribly.

Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her.

Pink hair. Short stature.

"_MMPH! MMPH!"_

"Linny relax! It's just me!"

Filyn was removing Linda's restraints.

**KRACKOOM**

Turns out, the robot she was assigned to appropriate was still in the car.

Grabbing her stuff, Linda followed the pink haired girl.

"So, you failed."

"Aren't you responsible for that? I thought you sent one of your folks to silence me."

"Actually, no. Didn't you hear over the radio that the CPUs were coming to the city to investigate something down west? Apparently, there's a rift in spacetime or something."

"Why are they bringing the national guard?"

Filyn was opening a manhole on the other side of the alley.

"Beats me. Either way, it doesn't look like you're going to get paid for this job."

"I still have something that could be useful. Should we renegotiate our contract?"

"Why? I wanted a nice big robot to bring home to Chromey!"

"That's… fine. Could you spare a bandage or something? I'm bleeding a lot here."

Filyn, using an angel wing, brings Linda back from the brink of death.

Getting a feel for her shoulder, Linda picks up her stuff.

"I guess we can deduct that whoever was responsible for _that_ wanted my inventory space more than a one million credit award or something else equally ridiculous."

Looking back at Filyn again, Linda feels something tugging at her heart. Something's familiar with her, but she can't put her finger on _what_ exactly that something is.

* * *

"I…"

Ranger trudged through the snow, moving back west towards extraction. Once Noire and Uni went inside the city, she detonated the car bomb. She put some time in making sure that it made noise for at least ten seconds before exploding.

"want to…"

She's marching in barely anything relative to the comfort of having a parka and a backpack on her. The blizzard slowed down, and eventually parted to make way for the sun's rays.

"go home…"

She doesn't know how it works, but she's abusing the new gadget she found as much as possible. Taking out some of her sports drink, she takes a hefty drink before moving forwards again.

The only other things that she has on her are a blue sweater, thick ski pants, a wool cap, and her radio.

And that radio started to vibrate. Thankfully enough, she got a message back from Takeshi.

"Hey, Ranger. I thought you'd have mutated into Godzilla or something. So, you have been moving closer to us. You finally lost them?"

"Yes. I'll debrief you on that later but how's the situation going at your end?"

"We ended up in contact with three other people. Of them, two, remarkably tough, almost bulletproof."

She felt her heart flip out of her chest. Still speaking in her native tongue, she responds.

"Get their names, then get rid of them as soon as possible. Although, if what you say is true, we might want to do this nonviolently if possible."

"How fucked are we?"

"Very."

Turning off her device, she makes a sprint towards home.

However, home might mean more than what she bargained for.


	7. Release from Obligation

Next thing Neptune knew, she was alongside Nepgear in Snowfac Metropolis.

She was about to rush two people that pointed rifles at her. Instead, she's face-first in the pavement.

She knew exactly what happened.

"Damn it! Useless, useless, useless!"

Slamming her fist into the ground until it too is bruised, Neptune activates HDD.

* * *

Takeshi had been analyzing a rather simplistic device for some time now. A black box with a red button on one of its faces. Its sheer external simplicity raises nothing but concern from him.

What were they doing with something that looks like a useless prop? Why did the last guy try to pull it out before they tackled him?

Neptune noticed his expression of intrigue and contempt.

"Do you know what that is?"

There's no screws. The button can be pressed, but gives slight resistance when it was done so.

"I can tell you what it is if you tell me what you guys are supposed to be."

Takeshi turned around to face the violet-haired girl.

"Okay, Violet. We're a research team. We're testing out a new machine that we got our hands on."

"That can't be the only reason why you are here."

Takeshi pushed his chair back and stood, towering over the goddess.

"You haven't told me what this thing is."

"It's a button."

"That much was known."

"An escape button."

"How does it work?"

"What are you really here for?"

Sitting back down, Takeshi lowered his arms to his crotch, still holding the obscure device.

"We have been more successful than any of us imagined. We sought new life in universes outside our own, after our environmental policies finally started towards a trend of stability. Before, our actions emitted carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the world warmed by more than 2 degrees Celsius."

"2 degrees?"

"A fiftieth of the difference between the freezing and boiling points of water."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It triggered a runaway reaction that melted a major portion of our polar ice caps, sending sea levels upwards, and aggravated hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, wildfires, and freak weather events to a point were several cities were scoured barren. Millions died. Uncountably many species disappeared."

"Wow that sounds… bad. You don't have divine protection or anything?"

Takeshi looked at Neptune like he lost a hundred neurons from hearing that.

"Quit spewing bullshit and keep up your end of the bargain."

"The way the escape button works is that you slam your fist down really, really hard until it comes out through the other side. You then get warped outside whatever dungeon you are in or, if you aren't in a dungeon, to the nearest city. Wanna test it out?"

"No. If your statement is true, then I really don't want to be sent flying away from where I want to be. If your statement is false, I still don't want to be the one to turn into a smoothie from whatever this is supposed to do, even if it's just to spite you."

Takeshi looked at the machine.

'At least I got something out of this. But for what? A black box, hosting complicated functions while obscuring the contents inside. All from a schizophrenic chick that often talks to people that don't exist.'

* * *

"I don't think so."

Neptune's voice changed, like she's about to go HDD any second.

Takeshi isn't familiar with this, but his intuition says her behavior is more than enough of an indicator for violence. He needs to act quickly. Looking around for something that could resolve the situation without killing him or his teammates, he finds the escape button, and slides it underneath Neptune's feet.

_CLICK_

Neptune is heavier than she appears at first glance. Her sneakers crushed the device, immersing her in cyan blue light. Ranger tried to fire her rifle, but it was jammed by a faulty cartridge.

Redjacket, however, noticed Ranger uncocking her bolt, and instinctively fired a round.

**PTSH**  
**CRACK**

The bullet travelled in an upwards trajectory thanks to her attempt at hipfiring the sniper rifle. However, a flash beforehand warped Neptune out of the way, and her round slams straight into the opposing wall.

"All that shit I put up with from her, that was all worth it! Violet, nice try. We came out on top!"

Ranger and Redjacket look dumbfounded.

"Come on guys, let's go home!"

"Wait. Takeshi, what's that around your belt?"

"These? They were on a couple of bodies. Over here, and there…"

He pointed to a couple of corpses on the ground. One kept Ayrton's face and peacekeeper uniform. The other reverted to Russian uniform, with an empty grenade belt.

"That's impossible. How? Why?"

Moving closer to the Russian corpse, she read the identification on it.

"But… he's dead. He's supposed to be dead. What's he doing here?"

As she was saying those words, the house, grenades, flamethrower, _everything_, started to disappear. Standing up, Ranger staggered backwards towards Uzume.

"How did-"

**BRECHSHHHHH**

She puked up several cups of orange Gatorade all over Uzume and passed out.

"Holy shit!"

Running over to catch her, Edward jumped into a dive.

Ayrton and Takeshi were slipping through holes that appeared throughout the cabin. Redjacket was taken aback, witnessing the whole house dissolve into yellow and blue mist. Along with it went Takeshi's new grenades and Ayrton's flamethrower. And the false bodies.

Edward taken a reading of Ranger's blood pressure and sugar. It was dangerously low.

"Damn it, stay with me! Ayrton! Password!"

"We hereby discard loyalty to the goddess of death, forged in magnetism beneath the sea. With highest power-**just let us in dammit!"**

"**Entrance granted!"**

Picking up their stuff, as well as the gadgets still remaining, the research team jumped in the portal.

"**Close it!"**

* * *

Purple Heart was soaring over the western side of Snowfac Metropolis. She's headed towards the mountains, looking for Uzume. On the bright side, the blizzard subsided completely. However, the log cabin that they were in disappeared, leaving her and the camera crew in the snow again.

Still lying face-first in the snow, Uzume was still wearing the jacket and pair of jeans she found in the lodge, but she's now covered in an orange fluid. Upon closer inspection…

"Disgusting! That stuff smells! Uzume! Get up, you stink!"

Uzume didn't give a response.

"Uzume! Wake up!"

Turning off HDD, Neptune walks towards Uzume with a hand covering her nose.

"Uzume, if you don't wake up now, I'm going to start shaking you."

Seriously Neptune, use an angel wing or a life fragment. Uzume's looking real bad right now.

"Mrhm… Nepsy, what the hell is that wet feeling on my stomach?"

"You can't **smell that?**"

_BZZT BZZT_

Neptune, someone's calling you.

"Hello? HS? Hayter is still unconscious huh? I'll see if I can get him."

Walking over to approximately where box man is supposed to be cuffed at, she sees a box with smoke coming out of it. He's conscious, at least…

At least you can transform again, ladies. Grab that box and head over to Nepgear. Unless of course you wanted to fuck around some more in the snow until she gives you a call.

* * *

Histoire had gotten a significant amount of data from Neptune's proximity to the portal. After compiling a report, she decides to share her findings with Nepgear. If only she would pick up…

"Histoire?"

Finally.

"Nepgear?"

"You wanted to call me about something. Found anything useful?"

"Yes. Turns out, there were people who were using a portal to venture into our dimension. No less than three times they opened a portal from what I assume is their own dimension. It's in a place that not even I can open a path to, but I tried to contact Choire to see if she could make the trip."

"Let me guess, it's going to take three days to do that, isn't it?"

"No. Three weeks."

"**Three weeks?!"**

"Also, I don't think that we would run into much success. Since I can't make a path to that dimension, it perhaps exists on a heavenly plane too, and Choire wouldn't be much help in that regard."

"Goodness…"

"It would be prudent for us to regroup, so that both Lastation and Planeptune CPUs are informed. Don't worry for the others, as I already sent a message to the oracles in Lowee and Leanbox."

* * *

"What the hell?"

Uni heard Noire's outburst but kept her head buried in the snow.

"Uni! Get up! We've been duped!"

Raising her head, Uni noticed that they had been talking to a radio over the past ten minutes.

And looking east, she sees a trail of footprints headed towards the city.

And in the city lies…

"**Nepgear!"**

* * *

**FWEEPFWEEPFWEEPFWACKOOM**

Uni's mind was racing. The enemy sniper was probably already in Snowfac Metropolis. If Nepgear runs into her she might not be as lucky as Uni and Noire were, especially with their previous captor showing rather explicit malice towards the CPUs.

An explosion in the southeast side of the city isn't helping her calm down. In fact, it made Uni even more worried. Was that freak hunting down Nepgear like something the guild puts on the bounty board?

"No! Nepgear!"

"Uni! Calm down! Seriously! Just because something blew up doesn't mean that anyone was hurt, especially if it made noise for that long."

"I-I'm so-"

"Focus! We'll find Nepgear soon enough!"

Uni decided to keep the radio on her in case Nepgear wanted to look at it. However, she wasn't able to hear much besides explosions and screaming for a while. And, it feels like she's falling, despite maintaining level flight in HDD.

In fact, an observer would have looked at the two Lastation CPUs and see that they are rising, and emitting sound like a jet engine.

Ranger had tuned the radio to emit a descending shepard tone of noise in slowly increasing volumes.

* * *

Purple and Orange Heart were headed towards the city.

"Uzume, can you give Nepgear a call in HDD? I don't think my processor unit is equipped with online functionality, much less a microphone."

"Uh, Uzume's in the same boat as you Nepsy."

"Fine, I'll just turn off HDD so I can get her on the line."

Turning off HDD in the air, Neptune materializes a snowboard and skids along the mountainside. Whipping out her phone, she tries to call Nepgear.

"Come on, little sis… don't tell me you're mad about what I said about this place…"

"Wow Nepsy! That's so cool~!"

Neptune, focus on the ride down. There's a lot of trees where you are headed, and the author doesn't want to write in the idea that you crashed while pulling that stunt.

Texting while driving, phoning on a snowboard. Please don't imitate this idiot's shit at home.

"Neptune? I just got off a call from Histoire and-"

"Sis, I'm not really concerned about that. I had to use a life fragment for Uzume and she smells worse than Kurome after almost a century of not taking a bath."

"**Neptune!** Don't say that about our older sister!"

"It's not her fault, some orange fluid seems to be dumped all over her body when I came back to her."

"And you are sure it's not from Uzume?"

"Hayter says it's probably puke."

"Ewwww…"

"Yeah, I know. We need a place to shower, and hopefully do some laundry."

"Well I'm on the southeast end of the city. You are on the west end, which makes the closest place to do one of those things be the Snowfac Westside Public Pool."

"Wait, there's a pool on the west end, which has the mountains, and the river is on the east?"

What use is a pool in a place with water?

"The river's water is freezing for most people; I don't see why there isn't a pool there."

"And if you want to do laundry, we could always do it at the basilicom."

"Yeah, you see the thing is, Uzume doesn't like the cold."

"Huh? That's a bit weird for a CPU."

"She gotten warmer clothes, but now they're dirty."

"Well I guess she could take them to a laundromat, but I think you could do that on your own."

"Nepgear…"

"Do it yourself. After that, meet me on the southeast side of the city. I'm headed to a café that should be warm enough for Uzume to hang around and listen to the news I got my hands on."

* * *

Nepgear, hanging up, hears what seems to be a cargo plane. It's strange considering that no aircraft is cleared to fly in Snowfac for a long time, not least because of the low temperatures and high winds. HDD still on, she flies towards where it's coming from, but it doesn't take her long to realize it's from…

"Uni?"

Glomped in a deep embrace, overwhelmed by sound, Nepgear tries to push away Uni.

"Is your processor unit broken or something?"

Uni wasn't able to hear the words coming out of Nepgear's mouth.

Trying to feel around for the source of the noise, Nepgear stumbled across a device, vibrating from the sheer volume of sound that it's emitting. She keeps trying to push away Uni so she can get the damn thing to turn off, but it's practically as easy as getting Vert's tits off her face.

"Uni!"

"Oh my goodness Nepgear I was so worried about you I thought you were dead!"

"_Uni!"_

Come on Nepgear, please…

"**Uni, for goodness sakes let go of me!"**

Finally, the CPU candidate hears the message. Dropping her arms, she noticed that Nepgear was trying to grab the radio Uni brought for her. Nepgear removed the batteries, disabling the sound coming out of it. Uni was able to see that her friend was clearly upset.

"Why did you bring that thing with you?!"

Uni wasn't able to hear a damn thing. They should land and release their goddess forms.

Approaching the ground, Nepgear reverses her transformation, holding her hand to one of her ears and wincing in pain. She is headed to a café in the southern half of the city, situated beside one of the biodomes. It's famous in city grounds for its deep, rich mocha and peanut butter cookies.

* * *

"She has hypothermia and looks really pale! Get her some warm water!"

Ranger was coughing feverishly.

"Guys, please…"

"Hang in there, don't die on me!"

"Please… don't… go… back-"

More coughing.

"Damn it! Stay with me!"

A deep breath. Medical staff came in with serving barrels of warm water. Ed pours a cup for his patient.

"Pull her up! Drink!"

"Don't go back there again. *cough* We weren't ready. It's not safe…"

"I said drink!"

Taking a swig, she started to breathe normally again.

"Thanks. Originally the plan was to get intel stealthily. We don't need to do that anymore."

"What would the boss think of that?"

"The boss is already more than happy with how well you performed. She doesn't want you to get hurt."

Edward paused for a moment. He wasn't the type to gossip about conspiracy theories, but part of his patient's allure was her mystique. He wasn't sure what to make of this comment, but he can feel a distinctive cooling of his appreciation for her skills.

"So, you expected us to die?"

"No. If anyone's expected to die, it would probably be me. Next time though, don't put yourselves in a situation where you could be seriously hurt. Can you get me to isolation, with an internet connection?"


	8. Justice or Peace

Despite being a pronounced expert in ballistics and being of excellent physical condition, Sergei Rosenbaum had a long-held interest in the occult.

Ever since his conscious thought was limited through the use of drugs, his interest in hard science diminished in scale to his interest in the dark arts. Altering his consciousness to experience periods of invincibility, and even attempting to manipulate withdrawal symptoms to escalate his strength became his primary motive. He read into the endeavors of Jack Whiteside Parsons, the Church of Scientology…

Having a horrendous experience with LSD made him not want to indulge in the powers of drugs, but instead understand them so he can control himself in his own agency while under the influence.

The only reason why his heavy drug use is tolerated by his new superiors is because of his highly detailed scientific papers resultant from that study. He recorded reaction times, pain sensitivity, cognitive, problem solving, and memory skills both before, while, and after being under the influence.

That all comes secondary to his work as a peacekeeper. Long divorced from his Russian origins, he sought refuge in Panama in order to free himself of what weighs on his consciousness.

To think… he was just a pawn for the destruction of humanity thirty years prior. One of many, and far from the most damaged. All of that, for the ambitions of one woman. Even now, he wonders if things could have changed if that bitch didn't exist. Certainly, the former communist powers of Russia and China had been responsible for some of the worst things to come to the planet. But that doesn't make up for the fact that she wanted to dissolve the world under nuclear ash.

His questions won't be answered in the present. The Russian-Panamanian opens up his emails.

A message from the government of Panama. A summons, in fact. A UN official requested his service, further stating that an international space project has been found to have world-ending possibilities. This information was relayed through an associate that he's well acquainted with. In addition, there has been a significantly large order of medical compounds, especially chelation agents. His role is to discern what they are using those chemicals for, and in the protection of the scientists if necessary.

Why would he be assigned to such a project? Who sent this?

He doesn't feel like he earned the right to be involved in a project that could end the world. Nonetheless, he's interested. He writes up a response to confirm that he has authorization to be involved in the project. The answers he got were chilling, and immediate.

"Serge."

Behind him was the very person that the email claimed to be from.

"Are you yet briefed on why I am here?"

Absolute certainty. He is indeed going to Antarctica.

He just prayed that he wouldn't be assigned to sabotage the development of a new weapon, let alone one developed by the last superpower on the planet, just like thirty years prior.

* * *

The boss logged into her machine, finally able to access her files.

There's so much that needs to be done before another expedition could be mounted. Antarctica was chosen for its historic neutrality with the rest of the world, and free from weapons and politics.

In other words, it was the only place where this mission could carry itself out in the name of peace.

But the world-wide threat that entities in the other dimension pose to the planet is non-trivial, considering their almost otherworldly power without the civilization understanding how that power works; she worries about the existential threat the CPUs pose to the planet.

This gives her two choices, both very detrimental.

One – request the assistance of UN peacekeeper forces. She has no control over who or what would be present among those people, but it would be the only way for them to legally stay in Antarctica.

Two – move the research facility to Canada or Australia. This grants her a lot more freedom in how those forces would conduct themselves, but would give the research tremendous negative publicity, being seen as a technology being weaponized rather than used for peaceful purposes. In addition, it does greatly increase the chance of that technology being as weaponized as her genome.

Out of options, she contacts someone close to her, serving in the UN Security Council.

* * *

"Noiresy was chasing her tail while Unisy was being hit by a literal aimbot, while I was rushing three guys and was only defeated by a portal opening up and hitting me with the force of a meteor? The hell?!"

"Gotta have to admit, that is pretty weird. Noire, why did you give up so easily?"

Lastation's CPU was staring at her plate. Chocolate cheesecake adorned with blackberry sauce.

"I just… I didn't want Uni to die, ok?"

Her sister looks up from that comment.

"When I saw Uni tumbling towards the ground…"

Nepgear held up her hand.

"Noire, did you happen to find anything that would pique your interest?"

Noire thought for a moment.

"Yes. After I dived at that woman, orange mist started to come out of her."

"So, that house, those bodies. That was _her_ nightmare."

"And, she was drinking a lot of fluid-"

A man dressed in indigo burst through the door.

"Nepgear! Something's happening at the riverside!"

Standing up, Nepgear bolted out of the café. Uni and the others stayed inside.

"Uzume, what weapons were those people using?"

"Pistols. One is a revolver, the other two used magazines, and either had a flashlight or a suppressor. The revolver hurt the most, and while the suppressed pistol had smaller bullets, both the lighted and suppressed pistols were on par with each other."

Neptune raised an eyebrow at this. Uzume's hair and eye color is turning from red to purple, and her orange-brown jacket and bleached jeans are deepening in color and shade. Any further…

"Uh, Uzume? Care to pull back a bit?"

Deepening further in color, her jacket turns black and her jeans become solid, deep indigo. The Planeptune logo on her shoulders, previously Mars-red, turned deep blue with her natural features.

"Hawaa! Uzume come back!"

"Neptune. Why didn't you help me when I was being shot?"

At this point, Noire and Uni were drawing their weapons.

"At ease, Lastation. I'm not planning on killing anyone. Yet."

"I-I want Uzume back!"

"Calm down, junior. I said I'm not planning on killing anyone. All I need is for you to answer my questions, even if what you got was ridiculous. I won't act out on it; you have my promise! But – I have no guarantees on my lesser half. I wouldn't say this again – why didn't you help me out?"

Neptune was still quivering.

"Do you need to transform to think clearly or something, Neptune? I happen to know that there's plenty of share crystals in Zero Dimension we can fall back on."

The cashier and some customers started to take notice of the situation unfolding at the CPUs' table. Nervously, the manager tried defusing the negotiations before the humans end up in the fallout.

"Uzume, would you like another extra large cup of coffee?"

Kurome turned towards the fat, older man. Raising an eyebrow for a few seconds, she turns her gaze back towards the three remaining CPUs.

"I want **two** extra large cups of the **strongest**, _blackest_ coffee you can muster, **unsweetened**, with some blueberry or blackberry-flavored sources of fiber. I've been on a shit diet recently and even CPUs get constipation and diarrhea if they imagine the consequences of what they ate. Don't fret, I'll pay for it."

"What the hell?" Noire is incredulous to what she just heard.

"What, do you have a scat fetish?"

That comment turned Noire's face green as a pickle. At least it shut her up.

"What, does it turn you on, like having a woman dressed in purple, dominating your frilly ass?"

Her deliberately tactless comment (and Noire's blushing) is interrupted by a flash of bright light.

"Okay, Kurome. That's enough. Stop shitting on Noire."

Lady Purple Heart, ladies and weebs. And apparently, with enough of Neptune in her to make a joke.

A shit joke.

…I guess the narrator should see himself out.

"Seriously, you're making people have suicidal thoughts."

"When are you going to answer my question?"

"When you are willing to stop being contrary and listen."

The manager came back, with two large cups of coffee and four muffins, all of them with bran and two blueberry, two blackberry. Taking out a card reader, he motions to Kurome, who inserts her card and enters her PIN number, which is no less than eight digits.

"Wow, old school huh."

"What a disrespectful tone. Say that again, Uni, and I'll make you have flashbacks you won't forget. And as you seen just now, I'm a woman of my word."

The card reader confirming Kurome's purchase, the customer recovers her card. The manager, seeing that the situation only escalated, tries to calm down the rogue CPU further.

"Would you like some whipped cream on your coffee, on the house?"

Kurome's expression softened, but she shakes her head.

"No. Thanks anyways."

"Just make sure to keep your cool, ok?"

Kurome turned her head quickly to the manager.

"Are you trying to manipulate me?"

Sweat dropped from his forehead.

"Well, if you or the other CPUs flipped, that would be bad, won't it?"

"Don't dream of it. Seriously, people have been doing that and it made messes that we had to clean up."

"I watched the livestream. Nepgear sometimes goes here so it was a bit important to me."

"Neptune…"

Purple Heart straightened in her chair.

"I wanted information. I got information, at least a rough idea about their history."

"And while I have my breakfast, you are going to share that information, understood?"

Taking a sip from her first drink, Kurome settled down into her seat.

* * *

Alien technology, recovered circa 2022 in the depths of Hudson's Bay.  
Einstein-Rosen bridges that let us travel from Earth to Mars in less than a second.  
Space could be conquered, and distant solar systems could be travelled to.  
But beyond that lies dimensional travel, where entropy can be escaped.

But in other dimensions, threats greater than we imagined lurk.  
Like mousetraps loaded with protein, waiting to take the lives of those opportunistic.  
And we waltzed in like lambs to the slaughter, blinded by greed.

"Ed, can you check on Dave and Ranger?"

Turning his attention to Takeshi, the good doctor closes his notebook and approaches the sub.

It was four days since Edward sent both Ranger and David into isolation with each other. Solitary confinement is unhealthy on the body and mind, so they have been the only ones to interact with each other for a while. He doesn't worry about the female being at risk of sexual assault. David is physically a lot weaker than her. But he is worried about David.

The medical staff have been taking the responsibility in shifts.

Donning a hazard suit, he enters the vessel to bring in the needed nutrients for the crew, take their blood readings, and possibly get a chance to talk to his boss.

The stats have been normalizing and the offending chemical responsible for changing their chemistry is subsiding. Hopefully they can stay on a reasonable diet like they did before the mission started.

Especially Dave, who seemed to have an addiction to fatty, salty foods and/or sweets.

* * *

UN Peacekeeping forces landed faster than they expected, along with the requested medical and defense supplies. High-powered rifles. Submachine guns. Light machine guns and rockets.

An Einstein-Rosen bridge caused all this commotion, and the representatives of democracy are invested in making sure that this project succeeds and doesn't destroy life as we know it.

And an entity that not only knows of our existence but has the technology to do things beyond human power is more than likely able to imitate our feats.

Ayrton was one of the first to welcome the group.

"Hey, if it isn't Torch! What do you think? Only took us a week to get here."

And here we see the nicknames come out. Igniting himself while trying to make an improvised flare was far from a fun time. Ayrton knew better than to ask for a different callsign.

"Acid. I hope you're sober while you're here."

That was from the man's usage of drugs while off-duty. Granted, he seems to pass intelligence tests and was never found with illegal stuff while on the job, but he's surprised that he wasn't discharged.

"You know I never take anything for a week before going on-duty again."

"You're immediately prohibited from getting at our meds."

"Not after them anyways. Where's your shrink?"

"We don't have anyone official. I could try to get you our only underqualified person on board."

"What? All these people and you don't have a psychologist?"

An older woman in a brown parka walked outside, meeting the new additions to the base.

And the person that Ayrton was talking to…

"Is that… Sanna?"

Backing away from the woman, he feels for his rifle.

Ayrton had to act quickly. Grabbing his friend's rifle so he won't fire on her…

"Sergei, no. She's one of our researchers."

"Torch, you didn't tell me she would be here."

"Who would be here?"

Looking back, Ayrton sees Ranger approach the pair.

"So, Sergei Rosenbaum."

"Why is she here? Why is that insult to creation here?"

"Why are _you_ here?"

Sanna is within spitting distance of the two now.

"Uh, miss, he's part of the peacekeeping force."

Her face straightens.

"Count your lucky stars that I need reinforcements more than heroes. Come inside and follow me."

Sergei's arms grew lax.

"Ayrton, if he wishes to shoot me, he would be dead in three seconds. Ease up on him."

"You two _know_ each other?"

"For reasons that cannot be revealed if _he_ wants to remain here doing his _job_. Honestly, I can't trust _his_ professionalism, but I want to make sure you can trust _mine_. If you want to act as a mediator, be my guest, but we both know how well we get along."

David came out, wondering what is going on at the surface. In his hand was a doughnut.

"A mediator? What have you gotten yourself into, Ayrton?"

"I don't know, why don't _you_ act as the mediator then? Apparently, Ranger's real name was Sanna!"

"Well, that is still pretty nondescript. Why are you surprised?"

"It's like she has an ego or something!" Ayrton responds.

"I'm confused, what?"

"Alright, enough! We're going back inside. All four of us can talk in a secluded room."

"Are you the goddamn boss of me?!"

"Well if _you_ know better than me, what the _fuck_ should we do?"

"Hell if I know, play nice?"

"_Again_, there are _reasons_ we know each other this way."

"_I don't want to be in the same room as her…"_

Everyone looked at Sergei.

"_While I was under the influence of a roofie, I saw her snipe five people in less than five seconds."_

Ayrton looked at Sanna with incredulity.

"It's clear that keeping secrets would be detrimental to two of my subordinates. We are heading inside, and you are going to tell them _everything_ that you know about me.

* * *

**BAM**

"You are a fucking shit-eating dog. An unneutered Russian stray, nursed off my bleeding hands."

Slamming the door behind them, Sanna greeted Sergei into the room along with David and Ayrton.

"I'm sorry ok? That was beyond fucked up and I don't want to revisit those memories."

"Fuck that. Tell them what happened, give them the context behind our relationship."

David motioned both parties towards chairs at opposite ends of the room. He sat between them, and Ayrton sat at the door. Sanna takes the chair to the left and Sergei to the right.

"I was briefed on the existence of a biological weapon being manufactured in Canada."

"A weapon. That's all I am? A tool of destruction, a harbinger of death?"

"My superiors knew of a supersoldier program and classified it as a weapon. We didn't know that it was purely human DNA that resulted in your creation. But your name…"

"Yes, I am a weapon, and designed precisely to be just that. I am also these guys' boss."

"And I was ordered to steal it and return home with the body. We had eaten before we left, not knowing that our food was laced with cleverly-hidden pills of LSD."

"And what happened in that mission?"

"We have marched up to intercept our target, only to come across an American team of military scouts, wielding modified M4 rifles to handle the cold. Apparently, they had the same idea as us. Our high-end weapons broke in the cold because we were using an experimental model stolen from China. Those models were not subject to rigorous testing and broke."

"So, you pulled up to my house afterwards, where you did what exactly?"

"We didn't know. There was a woman and a child, both practicing with hunting rifles…"

Ayrton has enough context to know what happened.

"So, Sergei did something that warranted Sanna to fire on his squad."

"He shot my mom and my younger sister, and they lie there dead. His team was approaching the house trying to clear it. Inside was my dad, and he was armed with the rifle I use today."

"What the fuck?"

"They even had grenades and tried using them on the house. Killed those assholes mid-throw."

Tears started streaking from Sergei's eyes. There was nothing hiding the reality of the situation.

"That's one hell of a bad trip."

David said something insensitive.

"That's beyond fucked up. So, we have someone that I believed for all this time as a really nice person, but now I know what kind of dark acts he's capable of. Too bad we ran out of beer a week ago…"

"You shouldn't solve your problems with firewater, Torch."

"Sanna?! How did you know that callsign?"

"You either doubt my hearing or my ability to conduct background checks. Either way, my dad was crippled by my uncle when he was drunk, trying to rape mom. I killed him in the heat of the moment."

David and Ayrton were staring at the middle-aged woman.

"That's why I'm upset at your drinking problem. David, I know you attempted a psychology degree in the past but failed. Would you like to use this situation to get a PhD?"

"I don't think I'll be whole when all that is said and done."

"Is that a yes or a no?"

Pausing for a bit, David looks back at Ayrton for advice.

"Do what you think is right. If you think it's not right to exploit this horrible story for your personal gain, don't follow through on her plan. I don't want a psychologist without ethics. Corporations do."

Nodding, David looks back at his boss.

"Yes. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be right for all of us to someday make peace."


	9. Second Chance

Linda and Filyn were at the outskirts of Snowfac Metropolis.

"So, I had the bot you requested but when I was trying to fix up my car someone came out of a dark alleyway and tried to mug me! She was dressed in this edgy-ass getup too – a fabric-based body armor in winter camouflage, with a helmet and mask, even a backpack."

"I heard shots outside the city, around an hour before I met up with you."

"If she just wanted to mug me, she didn't need to be…" Linda came up with a disturbing realization.

"I think you were used as bait." Filyn's sass does nothing to help with her employee's condition.

Looking over to Filyn, Linda had a distraught look on her face.

"I'm not unfamiliar with life and death situations. Aren't you scared?"

Filyn shakes her head. "No, actually. I thought you were good enough to get that machine, but I didn't expect you to come across aliens from another planet!"

"She looked human."

"…"

Trudging down the highway to Lowee, Linda looked at Filyn again.

"So, you thought I could do it, huh? Who came up with this mission?"

"Uh… I think it was Chromey."

"So, your boss and/or best friend in the entire world."

Getting a nod from her superior, Linda followed up with another statement.

"Well, that job wasn't going to be easy either way. Nepgear was going to be in the city regardless of that… _thing_ being present or not. If they were somewhere else when I was doing that mission…"

"And whose fault do you think that is? We can't do anything about it, calm down."

"Do you think Chrome's trying to set you up?"

Filyn's face turned stern and gave a solid response. "No." With that, the two marched into the snow.

* * *

"Neptune, what did you learn?"

"Those guys are researchers. They have a machine that lets them travel through dimensions."

"Okay, one – it's pretty obvious that they could travel through dimensions. Two – telling me they are researchers isn't very useful information."

"But it _is_ very useful information. They may be a lot less reliable fighters than we thought they are, and there's also the issue that they don't seek wanton destruction or domination, at least as far as I know."

"Doesn't change the fact that they baited me into a barrage of bullets."

"Also, I know their objective. They seem to seek a world with life in it. They said something about environmental policies, and how their world has been stabilizing after their actions caused it to change."

"Change? Are they reality-warpers like I am?"

"I wouldn't call it warping reality, but the person I was talking to, he said it warmed by an amount equating to two percent the difference between the freezing and boiling points of water. This was achieved through the emission of carbon dioxide into their atmosphere."

"So, the world got warmer. I don't see how that's a problem, but shouldn't their goddess's divine protection prevent this kind of change?"

"Perhaps they don't have any."

Everyone put down their drinks and stared at Purple Heart with blank, listless faces.

"It would explain why such a small change caused their ice caps to melt, aggravated natural disasters, and kill millions of people and made things go extinct. On the other hand, it won't explain everything."

At this point Uzume-I mean-Kurome was sweating buckets.

"Are you sure about this Neptune?"

"No. But what I'm sure about is that you will get out of that state. You're far too unpredictable."

"I'm not going to give in to your fantasies of control, junior. Also, I'm smarter in this form. Noire. Talk."

"I'm not sure I can add anything, Uzume."

"You said yourself that your aggressor asked you a few questions. What were they?"

"Who we were. What CPUs do."

"So, you tried answering truthfully. Ever thought of lying?"

"Once. I-I didn't want to think about what she would do…"

"Tch. So, Neptune decided to put on sheep's clothing, Noire lost all sense of professionalism…"

At this point Kurome was finished her meal.

"So, to recoup our losses, what exactly did you tell her?"

"I told her our names, what nations we rule, and what the role of a CPU is."

"And their role is…"

"Well, my first response was 'everything' but she seemed off at that. Called us a 'dictatorship'. So, I said we only 'ratified laws' and are the best fighters of our nations."

"And I guess that's where the lie resides. And it worked, right?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you follow through with more lies?"

"What if she was able to sense our emotions?"

"Ridiculous."

"Dogs could do that."

"And one lie worked, so why didn't you try another?"

The CPUs looked at Kurome with increasing amounts of frustration.

"Obviously _you_ would decide that constant deception is a good long-term solution." Uni complains.

"The fuck that supposed to mean, junior? You think that my use of deception is fatal? Please."

Purple Heart leaned over to the distraught CPU.

"Uzume… have you ever seen Noire try lying to people? She's not good at it."

"N-Neptune!" Noire interjects, showing full embarrassment.

"It's true though. You're never honest with your feelings, and I can see right through you."

"Are you kidding me right now?"

"Orange Heart, are you satisfied with that response?"

After some staring from the rest of the party, Kurome goes into a slouch.

"Fine. You shouldn't have lied there. Anything else you tell them?"

"She was very, very interested in how our powers work. I told her that CPUs get their energy from faith. She didn't seem to believe me. She also asked about a blue particulate that she found in our atmosphere, which is apparently alien to her. I keep telling her that I have no idea what it is."

Purple Heart stood up.

"Kurome?"

"Good enough. Also, I hate that nickname."

"It's not unwarranted. Are you done being an emo chick?"

Uzume's colors shifted from blue-black, to purple, then to orange-white.

"No, but it would be nice if you could keep me in the loop. Next time, we need a plan."

Neptune turned off her transformation.

"Oh, now _you_ are bitching at me for not having a plan! But here you are, saved by me because I hauled you away from a dramatic showdown where you would have been crushed under the dark CPU's boot in Zero Dimension. All dramatic and saying 'let me go! I need to end this now!' while we were dragging you away to the hideout! But sure, be passive-aggressive and call me out for not having a plan…"

"Neptune, don't add fuel to the fire, especially if you are going to be all dramatic like that and even more so when we are talking about a former enemy of ours."

"Noire, you know I have a hard time being serious in this mode."

"Jackass."

"Uni, not you too…"

"I don't care! You know how dangerous Kurome really is. The only reason she was defeated was because she liked to gloat and flaunt her powers like a total bitch."

"Hey!" Uzume expresses complete disapproval at Uni's comment.

"What? You're saying that you like doing that too? It's obviously a bad habit."

"Oh, now _who_ is the jackass? Definitely not the person provoking the **'total bitch'**!"

The manager of the café sprinted to the table.

"Hey, uh, Uzume? Can you please chill out?"

"I'm freezing, how can I 'chill out' even further?"

"Well, it's still very uncool to put them through something like this."

Uni stood up.

"I know that you're playing her, but you're right. I'm going to Nepgear now. Uzume, keep a cool head."

"B-but…"

"I know there's not much that could be done to make you honor my request, but 'cool' people don't get pissed off at people expressing their frustration."

"I-I…"

"Also, seriously, fuck you. Neptune, fuck you too. Bye."

The three remaining CPUs were left dumbfounded.

"Wow, Noire. When did Uni learn to throw so much shade?" Neptune inquires.

"I think she's feeling upset at how Uzume's handling her injuries, but I do think that's a bit far."

"So she thinks we are a bunch of b-"

**WHUMP**

"Ow! Uzume, what was that for?"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"Neptune, we can all come to the same conclusion without your help."

"Okay, okay! Fine…"

* * *

Nepgear was standing beside the riverside. The water was saturated with bits of scrap metal diffusing with orange crystallized dust. The remains look like a half-rusted submarine, several tons of explosives, and corpses. Those corpses bled orange fluids instead of a more recognizable crimson.

"Goodness, I know we've been seeing a lot more visceral stuff than usual, but this is just plain gross."

The others looked at Nepgear with concern.

"And you said that the polar bear swim was underway when this happened?"

One of the paramedics nodded. Bringing up video feed, it was clear that people that participated in the swim left the waters mentally ill. Some also suffered from chemical burns.

"Wow, I kind of wish sis was here to see this. This is probably connected to the issue that I was supposed to investigate, so their medical expenses would be paid by the basilicom. I'll even write that down."

Opening up the N-Gear, she walked towards the waterway while typing a reminder.

"I think we need as much data as we can get on this stuff. Did anyone take a sample of it?"

One of the police officers walked up behind the CPU with a memory stick.

"We have this."

Plugging the memory stick into the N-Gear, Nepgear analyzes the data.

"Ugh. No pictures of what's going on below the water. Drones out of commission. Give me a sec."

Taking out large quantities of metal from hammerspace, Nepgear forges a fish-like robot using those raw materials, then drops it into the water.

"Can you do this for me? We also need to dispatch a lining to filter out the contaminated water."

Giving her N-Gear to the cop, Nepgear turned around to see Uni flying in the air.

"Uni! I'm down here!"

The Lastation CPU dropped down to the ground.

"I just finished up surveying the place. So, Uzume calls this a 'nightmare', and the thing we are investigating is definitely responsible for this kind of damage. We could clean up the mess instantly, but I think we should study it a bit more. What about you?"

"What, so more people would end up going mad?!" the paramedic behind the two started complained.

"Uh, what?"

"Look!" the paramedic says as he presents Uni his footage.

"Okay, no. I don't think I want to see people swimming in that stuff. But, it's your nation. I don't think it's right for me to dictate what happens here. But, would Uzume and Neptune be happy?"

Uni's question caused Nepgear to remember something.

"Oh, right. I called the meeting so we can talk about the dimensional irregularities."

* * *

"So that's how Itachi & Co. was responsible for the design of her processor unit. They do military stuff, power tools, energy, and advanced materials. They tried making something that would help keep the peace, but obviously the design was unstable."

"Well, they _eventually_ succeeded, right?"

"Oh, with Neptune? Sure, I guess. One of their subsidiaries, GlowST, was purchased by DigiWest."

A couple of café customers were discussing matters that are quite frankly irrelevant to the CPUs, but Noire can't help but listen to the racket going on behind her.

"Itachi & Co? The same ones that made the wand?"

Lastation's CPU looked at her Planeptune counterparts, flustered. Neptune was confused by it.

"What? You didn't know? I thought it would be obvious! They designed the screws!"

"Seriously, Nepsy? Why are you entertaining this? Do you want her to get bigger boobs?"

"Uh…"

"Neptune – don't entertain that thought. I'm fine with how my body looks, even if I can be a serious prude. I'm more confused about why Itachinco would design processor units."

"Well, I guess their motto could be summed up in your own words. 'We only do everything!'"

"Neptune, can it."

_PSHH DINGDING_

"I'm back, sis!"

"Ooh! Nep Jr, what's shakin'?"

"My battery life. I need food, now."

"Pudding?"

"No. I crave meat."

"Oh crap! She's really hungry then! If you're going to eat anyone, eat her first!"

"Wait, what!? Nepsy, the fuck!? Does she seriously get that hungry? Is that why we lost a tree after you guys left Zero Dimension? Nepgear, did you eat my fucking tree house?!"

A waiter walked over to serve Nepgear.

"We don't have chili dogs, but we have breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, and meat buns."

"One breakfast sandwich with eggs, cheese, sausage, and bacon, two slices of avocado toast, and four meat buns. Also, I came here for peanut butter cookies and mocha."

"A box?" Nepgear nodded. "Sure, is that all?" Nepgear nodded again.

"Nepgear, are you fucking listening to me?"

"Of course I didn't eat your tree house. I just used it as firewood to cook the gross-looking monsters while you were sleeping. Also, I didn't see any house in that tree."

"It was perfect for a tree house!"

"As were ten other trees. Also, that tree was dead; if I didn't cut it down, it would burn itself down."

"If it burned itself down then the other trees won't be affected!"

"Not true. I had to deal with a forest fire off the west coast. Sure, it was because someone dumped napalm all over the place, but it still ate up several hectares of land."

"Are you serious Nepgear?!"

"Goodness! Can I eat?!"

After a moment of silence, the four other CPUs watched as Nepgear scarfed down her food, paying for the meal afterwards by tapping her wrist on the card reader. Uzume was dumbfounded, but silent.

"Did the monsters taste good?"

"No, Uni. They tasted like skunks mating with penguins. There's very little food in Zero Dimension then."

"Wow, Nepgear. Did you ever sleep?" Neptune said.

Nepgear said nothing as she pushed the peanut butter cookies to the center of the table.

"There has to be better ways of getting energy than carnivory." Uzume says, dread painting her face.

"A keto diet wasn't very helpful for my figure. I'm already pretty skinny. If you aren't going to help yourselves, I'm going to eat the box."

"How fast of a metabolism does she have?!" Uni says.

"Honestly, you don't want to know." Neptune responds. "Nep Jr, has Histoire been whispering some evil words in your head like 'if Neptune doesn't work, you could have her pudding'? Because…"

"Neptune, you literally stuff the fridge with only pudding. All that's in there is sugar."

"Nepu! Uzume!"

"What do you honestly expect when someone with that kind of metabolism works hard enough to cover your slack? That energy has to come from somewhere."

"Nepu! Noire!"

"Guys, stop bullying me for being a big eater."

"Nepu! What about me?!"

"And by extension, my sister."

"Yeah! No bulli!"

"Now that everyone's here, I have a few important announcements to make. One, Histoire figured out that people were using a portal to venture into our dimension from their own. Two, she can't open a path to that dimension naturally. Three, she's contacting Choire to talk about it."

"Crostie?! Why her?"

"I mean, it's probable that she's doing it through bigger sis."

"Okay… I guess."

"Is there anything else?"

"Histoire speculates that it exists on a heavenly plane, beyond her reach. It may be possible that we have to go to Celestia to travel to their dimension. We may need Histoire or even Choire, but if we use Choire then that means we either need a way to get the Nep-Note there, or release Choire."

"One seems impossible, the other is dangerous."

_PSHH DINGDING_

"Rom! Ram! Wait up!"

Lowee's CPUs were rushing through the door. Blanc was trying to reign in her younger sisters while Ram was running in to meet the others. Rom was also chasing after Ram but came to a stop, looking at the people inside the building. Suddenly becoming self-conscious, she hid behind Blanc's legs.

"Blanc? What are you doing here?"

"Mina told me everything. I thought you might need more backup. Besides that, I know that my oracle doesn't like being a babysitter all the time so I thought she could use a change of pace."

"Makes sense."

"Ooh! Rom, Nepgear has cookies!"

"Yay!" Rom follows her sister to the table.

"Hey, wait, aren't you going to ask first?!"

Too late. The two already grabbed a row of cookies to indulge in themselves.

"So, you guys need help in getting to the other dimension?"

"What exactly could you do on that front?"

"We could take a look at the sites where the portals appeared and figure out why those places were easier for them to go to and use that advantage for ourselves."

"Blanny, while that is all well and good, what's the plan _after_ we get in there? Their world might be devoid of goddesses, and I don't see any of them as accomplished mages. If Rom's powers are useless, that could be very, very bad not just for her, but for all of us."

"Fortunately for you, I came up with a plan."


	10. Blunt Strategy

Sanna Arnatsiaq. Head administrator of the Einstein-Rosen Research Team. Genetically engineered to be the perfect human soldier in secrecy. A gift to biological science, and a target of assassination long ago.

Sergei Rosenbaum. Former assassin. Former nationalist. Betrayed turned betrayer. Seeker of peace.

These two people, respectively serving as the protagonist and antagonist of an arc long past, and one that they won't return to. Instead, we would focus on the people their actions touched.

Pauline Redjacket. Physics polymath. Mechanic. Engineer. Sniper.  
Takeshi Minata. Master of logic-based systems. Roboticist. Hacker. Mathematician.  
David Windich. Police officer. Forensic scientist. Amateur psychologist.  
Edward Fleming. Physician. Lover of spy movies. Critic to conspiracy theories.  
Ayrton Carlos. Chemist. Moved from energy, to peacekeeping, to research. Occupational nomad.

And…

Hyperdimension.

Right now, Hyperdimension is about to be embroiled in a conflict between the CPUs and organized crime once again, this time in the sinister and Machiavellian - the Vision of Tari. The majority of generals have put in an earnest effort into fighting them, but their actions have grown more and more violent. Their sabotage of a major manufacturing plant in Planeptune territory had been all for the sake of retrieving the schematics of a prototypical machine meant for policing. Their actions are unsustainable, and would have resulted in the goddesses investigating them immediately…

If Sanna didn't destroy the criminals' target through a fluke.

Now, the stoic ERRT and the heroic goddesses have several weeks to formulate a plan to neutralize one another, while the vicious Vision of Tari continue their operations. Unhindered, for now.

* * *

"So, they act hostile, appear to be overleveled, and have dangerous interactions with Uzume's powers. On top of that, they don't seem to come from a world with goddesses. Also, I watched your stream. They might be much more afraid of you than what you initially assumed." Blanc said, wedging her ass deep in her seat.

Uzume flashed purple again. Kurome's leaking through her, no thanks to her anger and frustration at getting puked on being completely preventable. Blanc noticed something change with Uzume. If anyone's good at dealing with anger and frustration, it was her. Otherwise she'd be in HDD 24/7, and she can't have that. She had to move quickly, try and find a justification for why Neptune believed a show of force would be foolhardy.

"Uzume, save your breath. I know that Neptune reached level 1 again while Noire is at level 20. Meanwhile, I have put in more effort in keeping a healthy figure considering the shit you put us through. I'm not going to get caught with my skirt in the wind again."

Noire bolted out of her seat, towering over Blanc. "What makes you so sure about that, White Heart?" Raising her hands in the air, Blanc strode backwards with a smug grin on her face. "Simple. Whip out your rapier and stab me." Looking confused, Noire looked at the smaller goddess with incredulity. Her eyebrows raised, she looked back at Neptune with a scrunched face like Blanc grew two heads.

_**POP**_

That sound was Blanc whipping around and clapping her hands right in front of Noire's right eardrum. "Ow! Blanc, what's wrong with you?!" Pushing Noire back into her seat, Blanc jumped back to Uzume's side. "I think that does more than enough to prove my point. You need to train more often."

"What's your plan then, Blanc? Just grind for three weeks straight until we can just brute force them?" Nepgear quipped. "What's the plan for when we can't just beat those people up?"

Blanc looked at Nepgear with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't confuse me with your brute of a sister. We fought reality-warpers before and survived. I doubt that they are anywhere near as powerful. But, Neptune's point (which you reiterated) remains valid. It would be dangerous to head into their reality, not least because of the fact that our powers might not work at all there. Instead, why don't we give them a reason to stay here?"

"What exactly do you mean by that, Blanc? What are you planning?" Uzume said, looking a little pale. What would Lowee's goddess do if she got her hands on them? Rape? Torture? Vandalism? After all, it's what her predecessor would do.

"We arrest some of them."

Neptune stood up from her chair. "No. Blanc, wherever you're going with that…"

"What else should we do? Beg and grovel at their feet after your shitshow of a performance?! You keep claiming to be the 'protagonist' and whatnot. Act like it!" Blanc says, slamming her fist to the table.

"A protagonist doesn't lack a moral compass, Blanc! Seriously? Using hostages?" Neptune's eyes widened while her pupils shrank, looking like an intern that suddenly got pushed a heavy piece of work onto them and was told to finish it by tomorrow.

"It's what being a CPU is about. These people are dangerous to society, so we should not have them be running amok where innocent people could get hurt." Blanc seems to have gotten into the rhythm of pounding the table to emphasize every sentence she makes. "Besides that, it would make it easier to figure out where that portal is coming from since they can't just shut it while one of them is here."

Neptune shakes her head, knowing that Blanc wasn't there for the first half of the debriefing and doesn't know half of what she's talking about. "Blanc. They can, and do, shut the portal even when there's still people outside. I seen it myself. Though, they only did so according to a schedule they made beforehand. What happens if they decide instead to simply change the position that the portal would be? That logic gets thrown out of the window."

Everyone turned to Neptune looking like someone or something was possessing her. "What?"

"Neptune, that's reasonable and sound logic despite you remaining in your human form." Noire pointed out.

"But Noooiiirreee… What Blanc wants us to do sounds like a pain to go through, if it doesn't work…" Neptune whined.

"Oh, wow. That's why you came up with that response. Fucking hilarious." Uzume's sarcastic clapping echoed throughout the café walls. "I guess that could be a plan B. What say we have a plan A? Gearsy, if we could get our hands on some of their gear, why don't we have you hack into their systems?"

"Uh, what are you planning on doing with my sister, Uzume?" Neptune says, concerned that Uzume would be implicitly responsible for Nepgear pursuing her dreams of turning Planeptower into a gigantic mech.

"Relax, Nepsy. It's not like she didn't do this before. Besides, it's good to develop her talents."

Looking at Uzume, Nepgear puts some thought into her plan. Clarity and conciseness aside, the plan isn't optimal.

"I don't think we even need to get physical access to their equipment. We could just intercept their transmissions and plant a worm. It's slower, but I'd probably know if my devices are stolen. From what Neptune and Noire said, those people are clever and might be at the same level as Anonydeath, or better. Cracking their systems would more likely work if we don't get caught."

Uzume nodded at Nepgear's suggestion. "Honestly, it should be appealing even to you, Neptune. No fighting required, just get your sister to do the dirty work for us. Nobody is in danger of getting hurt. They probably won't even put up a fight. Still, I'm not letting you slack off…"

* * *

"Cross Combination!"

_SHING TANG SHING TANG WHUMP TANG WHUMP_

"Come on, junior, you gotta do better than that! Put some muscle in it!" Kurome taunted with a shit-eating grin. "Whatever happened to that plot armor you like flaunting about? Your form is awful, how are people going to keep watching if your blades twist and spasm like that?!"

She had a point. Neptune's attack was permeated with an almost drunken fervor, her blade bending and sliding off of Uzume's skin, leaving no bruises. Ideally, in a CPU duel, there should be massive purple marks indicating at least some kind of internal bleeding for humans, but that wasn't the case here.

"32-bit Mega Blade!" Neptune instead tries an attack that would penetrate Uzume and Blanc, her sparring opponents of the day. Yesterday it was Rom and Ram, and Rom twisted Neptune's right leg with a low-level distortion spell.

"You call that spellcasting? That felt like a water gun!"

"Celestial Severance!"

_**BZZACK PSHONG**_

"Good job, Nepgear! Didn't think you had the guts or skill to take down White Heart." Kurome said, smiling but obviously startled by the turn of events. Blanc's transformation reverted, and she's unconscious on the ground. 'This might end poorly.' thought Kurome.

"You're thoroughly enjoying this, aren't you, Kurome?" Neptune said.

"Neptune, Neptune, Neptune… I thought I told you not to call me that. I'm going to have to teach you some manners now…" Kurome's face turned almost neutral with the exception of a small twitch in her right eye. You done did it now, Neptune!

"Who's teaching who manners now? Who is this young lady?"

"Uwaah! Plutie!? What are you doing here transformed?" Neptune said, backing in to Kurome.

"I am Uzume Tennouboshi, and you will refer to me as such!" 'Uzume' will punish Neptune quickly for her mistakes that day.

**WHUMP**

"Neptune!" Nepgear called out, frightened at the fact that two sadistic CPUs are the only ones beside her that remained conscious.

"Oh… where are my manners now…" Iris Heart purred as she stroked her sword-whip, causing Kurome to frown in annoyance. "My name is Plutia, and I can't tell what exactly you are doing playing with two of my favorite toys…" Iris Heart smirked as Nepgear shrunk backwards, recalling memories that invoked arousal or fear, with her unsure of which. "Not that I don't have any back home, but I'm jealous now. Can I join in?"

"Urk! What happened, Sadie? Why are you transformed and why do you need me?" Neptune said, in a fetal position trying to recover from Kurome's forceful punch.

"I enjoy the moans of people getting some hand-to-hand contact… It brought forth urges that were so unbearable that I had to do something about it." Plutia said, licking her lips sensually. "No matter. I'm here because my Histoire came across a problem that needs to be solved here. Apparently, there's this group that calls itself the "Vision of Tari" running amok in PC Continent. I asked little old Rei about it…"

"Okay, firstly, what. I know that I have sadistic tendencies myself, but I don't word it as sexually as that. Secondly, does any of this sound familiar? Nepgear?" Uzume inquired.

"Apparently Ryuka charged a guy named "Robert Kottax" with racketeering before. He was an apparent head of a cartel that stole technology from Affimojas and promoted underage gambling, not to mention being involved in attempted murder allegations against labor activists in Leanbox. The organization has that exact name, and to hear it cropping up in your dimension…"

"Okay juniors, class dismissed. Neptune, Blanc, take a revive spell. Get off the ground. Blanc, go home and train Noire."

"Aw… you sure you don't want me to stick around some more and get in on the action?" Iris Heart said, emphasizing her point by licking her sword.

"Fuck off." said Kurome. "We were training, not reenacting 50 Values of Grey."

"I written that book." Plutia said.

"You know, I was being a smartass before, but now I'm totally disgusted." Kurome retorted.

* * *

Plutia, Uzume, Neptune, and Nepgear were in Planeptune's Basilicom, with two of the native CPUs drinking black coffee and Neptune having her usual pudding. Plutia skewered some fenrir meat and put it directly on the stovetop, ignorant to sensibility, sanitation, and style, because if asked, the place doesn't have a goddamn grill so fuck 'em.

When she was merely human her favorite food was souvlaki, especially since the cardbirds around had nearly inedible crap (apparently they could make paper pulp out of their feces) covering them as protection against both weapons and the cold. The only reasonable way to cook one of them was barbecuing it so the feathers fall off into the fire, and while the massive cardbird is cooking there were pieces of much more easily portioned meat, such as fenrir, roasting over the open flame on a skewer.

Cooking cardbird was a smelly, intensive process and left meat that was, while very nutritious, awful tasting. No wonder fenrir was considered a delicacy then.

"Plutsy, no offense, but the fact that a person with your name runs a nation and you were born through natural causes raised questions for me. Were your parents rich?" Uzume asked.

"Rich? What do you mean?" Plutia said, her voice trailing sluggishly like a kid got her hands on two diazepam pills and a bottle of gin.

"Your name is derivative to 'Pluto' in some way. A 'plutocracy' is a world ruled by rich people."

"But isn't that the way the world works anyway?" Plutia asked.

"'Kay. Makes sense and is more than enough as an answer." Uzume said, her right eye twitching at the response. Looking over to the CPU was Histoire, who knows a bit as to why Uzume's unhappy in hearing that kind of response from Plutia. She decided then to head out and check her emails.

"What, was Planeptune poor when you were running the place?" Neptune asked.

"Imagine me, as hard as that is using that head of yours for anything besides hitting stuff with it, studying to be an engineer while their alcoholic parents were living on the street only to have one of my lab experiments blow up and take off my arm. Next time, Neptune, display some tact. We have a guest." Uzume grumbled as her coloration shifted again from her red self to the more cold and cruel shade of blue.

"Uzume, can you stop doing that? It doesn't look healthy… It does look fun though…" Plutia said, with a smile that made Neptune's hair frizz like it was charged with static.

"It obviously isn't, Plutsy. So, were the Vision of Tari causing a racket in your country too?" Uzume said, her coloration returning back to red-orange. Only to have Histoire burst in from the door.

"Neptune, you have calls from Blossom and Tsunemi. They wanted to discuss what happened with you and Nepgear last week." Histoire said, floating in on the four CPUs during their meal. Smelling something, she wanders into the kitchen. "W-What?! Who put meat on the stovetop? Neptune, do you know how long it would take me to clean this out?!"

"Plutie did it." Neptune responded. "I don't know the Vision of Tari all that well so I'm gonna step out for a bit, ladies. Last thing I want to deal with is more yammering-"

"The Vision of Tari is a primary element of this discussion. It seems that there was something in Nepgear's reports that lined up with some communications intercepted from the group." Histoire said. It was rare for her to pull Neptune out of work, and almost immediately she felt like she'll regret it.

"Huh. Ask the other you if Plutie could talk in front of the two governors. If that works out, I have a few words I want to edge in to them beforehand. You girls want more coffee?" Neptune asked. Histoire let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Nepgear nodded while Uzume shook her head. "I would like some, Neptune." Histoire said.

"One lump or two?" Neptune asked.

"Two please!" said Nepgear.

"One." said Histoire.

Neptune headed back to the kitchen. "Oh Plutiiiiie, your food is burning!" Plutia walked in after Neptune. "Aw, my food... Hm... What should I do?..."

"Well, time to give my other dimension's counterpart a call. Give me a few minutes." Histoire floated through the door outside.

* * *

In the Hyperdimension Planeptune basilicom, a rivalry remains heated between two big shots in Neptune's ranks.

"So, I was like, 'Ryuka, Kottax took an assault rifle out of his pants and shot live rounds into a crowd, and all they are going to charge him with is racketeering?' only to hear her say 'So? It's not our country, they don't want to do anything about it, so why should we get involved?' The fuck with that asshole." Tsunemi cries out in exasperation. "If I was the judge there, I'd put 'terrorism' on his criminal record after a stunt like that and I expect judges in my province to do the same."

"Honestly, shut up. I don't really care. Neither should you. It was in Leanbox, and there were conspiracy theories saying Chika herself ordered him to do that. Should we really open that can of worms and have Leanbox declare war on Planeptune? I thought you were a pacifist." Blossom Aisen said. "I mean, he still got a life sentence. Racketeering clearly wasn't his only offense, but if we didn't add 'terrorism' to that list we could have the excuse that we didn't do it to steal Leanbox's share energy."

"I still don't think it's right. What if someone emulates him?"

"Oh, what? You sympathize with those foreigners?" Blossom continued. "Oh, curse my bleeding heart! I, Tsunemi, cannot stand for some random union buster to be charged with simply a life sentence, I must string his career up from wall to wall claiming that him and his entire being is the true example of vileness, along with the nation that let him go free, peace in the world be damned!" she whined with a sarcastic tone and an upturned hand to her forehead.

"Green Heart still lost shares over that incident, and Planeptune isn't exactly stable on the front of labor rights activists. Why do you think I got elected?" Tsunemi responded.

"Because you run a backwoods city that barely gets divine protection from any CPU, that's why." For obvious reasons, Blossom's comment about the other governor's region pissed Tsunemi off.

"_**Backwoods?!**_ You." Tsunemi said, emphasizing who she's talking to with a pointed finger. "Are a bitch."

"Nice comeback, you hairspray-snorting droid hippie."

Histoire hovered in on the two governors having their conversation. "So, I think you'll be in a conference call with three more people than you expected. Neptune's confidence on the matter is pretty weak, but you can talk with two other people who have been there plus someone else that shares your problem."

"Okay, you are an **army** cum dumpster **slut**, Aisen." Tsunemi countered.

"How dare you, you filthy **whore**, talking about my military service like that!"

"Stuck-up shit-brown army man is what you are, hiding your two-inch penis until you fap to the screams of men and children dying to submachine guns." Tsunemi sneered, motioning her hand in an up and down fashion in front of her groin area to imitate male masturbation.

"Are you questioning my femininity again?"

"Or maybe you slept your way to the top?" Tsunemi countered, pressing her palms together and motioning her hands to one side of her face.

_"YOU BITCH! I did no such thing! Take that back or I'll **kill** your ass!"_

"**ENOUGH."** Histoire said, reasserting her authority to the two governors. "Honestly, you two, I know that you don't see eye to eye on practically anything, but Neptune is seriously considering giving you her time. Can you at least respect that?" Her words echoed throughout the halls of the Basilicom.

"Uh, affirmative, Histoire, sir!" Blossom says, standing upright with a hand pressed against her forehead in a salute. "Rest assured, the matter won't be brought up again until our business is finished!"

"Tch. I have more pressing concerns than get in an argument with Blossom again." Tsunemi groaned. "I hate this. I know Neptune hates this tune, marching in unison like soldiers. You know that I'm the one keeping Snowfac from seceding to Lowee; so, you shouldn't treat my concerns so callously, Blossom. I'd rather you be informed about what the separatists are thinking so my city doesn't end up in civil war."

"Tsunemi, stop it. If you want to talk to Neptune about this, make this her business and not yours." Histoire said. Last thing she needs is Neptune getting bored with doing work and coming up with the excuse of 'it's their problem, not mine'. She has enough on her plate as-is.

* * *

Neptune was preparing coffee for Nepgear and Histoire again. "Plutie, wait, what are you doing?! That's my-" she didn't even finish that sentence as a bright light flashed out of the kitchen.

"Excuse me, Gearsy." Uzume said, walking in the direction of the other two CPUs. Neptune was in her underwear, and Plutia was transformed. "**Plutia!** What are you doing to Neptune!? What in **SAM HELL** is going on here?!"

"Uzume, did you learn that expression from Chika?" Nepgear said, overhearing the three CPUs. She honestly doesn't want to get involved, especially if Iris Heart is part of the equation.

Meanwhile, Neptune was trying to push away the depraved CPU. "Uwah! Sadie, don't put that in my-"

**SMACK**

Iris Heart, carrying a bottle of red wine, slapped Neptune's rear end as she tries to escape. Unsatisfied with the response, she pulls both CPUs into the kitchen again. Neptune by her left leg, and Uzume by her bra. Plutia reeked of alcohol.

"You fucking pervert! I'll kick your ass! Get your fucking hands off my clothes!"

"Mhehehmm... I'd much rather get my hands _under_ your clothes." Iris Heart responded, bringing Uzume, who's futilely clawing her violator's visage trying to escape, close to her face and licking her victim's right cheek. "Don't you think that would be so much more... _exciting?_" Panting heavily, Uzume could smell her lust underneath the strong scent of fermented grape juice. "Or would you rather watch me give Neppy some tender loving care? Don't worry Neppy, I only wanted you to experience the same pleasures I indulged myself in a few minutes ago..."

Neptune quickly protested to her advances. "I don't want a bottle of **brandy** shoved in my-"

**CHINK**

The chaos caused the cups of coffee that Neptune was preparing to fall on the floor and break.

"The fuck's wrong with you!? Now I got coffee all over my clothes and the floor is covered in ceramic!" Uzume shrieked, her voice edging into higher pitches.

"All the better to do _this_, my dear!~" Iris Heart's face was flushed red.

**WHUMP**

Kicked down by Plutia, ass raised in the air. If anything would make Uzume lose it, this was it. "That's it. I'm not tolerating this anymore. You earned this, Plutsy."

"Uwah! Kurome's back!"

"Neptune. Shut up, and get out. Plutia, I'll personally introduce you to the floor."

**WHUMP**

"Awww. Is that the best you can do?~ Your foreplay sucked and I'm still in the air. Don't think I don't see you, Neppy~! It's been so long since we played together…"

"It's only been a month! A _**month!**_" Neptune desperately used her hoodie as a shield, trembling in anticipation of what 'services' Plutia would 'indulge' her in.

"A month without playtime must be hard for you, Neppy…"

"Kneel." One word, in a calm voice. The same voice that Nepgear heard in her dreams at Zero Dimension.

**PSHONG**

Plutia's reverted back to human form, without bruising or mechanical force. "You're _really_ low on share energy, aren't you Plutia? As promised…"

**WHUMP SKEEEEE**

Neptune grimaced at Uzume as she kicked Plutia in the back of her head and skid her across the floor, 'mopping up' the ceramic shards on the ground.

"Ow… you took things a bit too far…" Plutia says hypocritically.

"Too far… that's something I keep telling Plutie, Uzume. Perhaps you could make progress with her."

"Ha. Nice. High five." Kurome raises her hand in the air. "It's not cool to leave me hanging, Neptune." Neptune kept her arms to her sides, looking at the coffee spilled on the ground unhappily. "Nepsy? High five? Tch. You're such a killjoy."

"Neptune. Tsunemi and Blossom are ready for you. And I already talked to Plutia's Histoire. She's fine with them discussing this problem as long as Plutia is." Histoire commented, floating in on the four CPUs. "Goodness, Nepgear, why are you so pale?"

"Plutia's apparently not in a napping mood at all, so she's been going HDD much more often than usual."

"Oh. That's certainly a problem." Histoire says, looking towards the kitchen. "Neptune?"

Walking out, Neptune had a sad look on her face. "Sorry Histy. I wanted to do something nice but Plutie seems to be repressing some hormones or something." Looking back at the kitchen, she sighed. "I guess I'm gonna have to brief these guys on what they're getting into. Uzume, I know that you like being cool and edgy and all that other jazz, but can you avoid acting like a supervillain? It's tacky."

Walking to the main hall of the Basilicom, she looked back at Nepgear. "Wanna come with, sis?"

Nepgear nodded and followed after her sister.

* * *

_CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK_

"Do you think I'd really say something about those robots to you?" Tsunemi said, continuing on with her conversation with Blossom Aisen. Hearing an almost signature set of footsteps made by Neptune's footwear however, she abruptly stopped talking.

"I don't, but they seem to be pretty important. Wouldn't it be necessary for all of us to know about-"

"Neptune's already here, Aisen." Tsunemi pointed out.

Looking back at the hallway that Histoire popped through, Blossom noticed her footsteps too. ('Tsunemi is a freak. Served in the guild, became some loud-ass idol, and then a bleeding-heart politician. Meanwhile I served in the army and have worse hearing than her. What Neptune's name gave her that ability?') Standing up straight to prepare for a salute, Blossom ignored those thoughts. For now.

"Heeeyyyy! How's my sister's favorite pencil pusher today?" Tsunemi slouched at Neptune's comment.

"Lady Purple Heart, sir! We come to report that-" Blossom started. Tsunemi facepalmed.

Neptune interrupted her. "Hey, uh, you don't need to do that right now. I know you love me and all, but I have something important that you guys might want to know before we start. Have you heard about Plutia?" Both governors shook their heads. "_No?_ Well, I guess we should start from there. Plutia's from another dimension, and rules over her dimension's version of Planeptune. While I could go into detail about how we met, we'll run out of time. There are three facts you need to know. **One**, she reported there's Vision of Tari activity in her dimension. **Two**, she's often sleepy and speaks really slowly outside of her divine form. **Three**, her transformed state is incredibly dangerous. Now I **really** need you to listen in on this one, because the last thing I want to deal with is any of you being hurt. Any questions?"

Tsunemi raised her hand. "Yeah, uh, you have been acting really formal despite being outside of your divine form. It's unusual and I can tell that something's very, very wrong. Care to share something?"

Neptune looked at Tsunemi. "Innocent people are in danger, Plutia transformed multiple times today, and Uzume's acting erratically." Slouching, she grumbled "I really wish I didn't get out of bed."

Nepgear watched Neptune with a tilted head. "Sis, what did you take this morning?"

Neptune looked back at Nepgear and answered, "A _**LOT**_ of Tuffmill and caffeine. So, _**your**_ regular. I'm gonna feel awful tomorrow but it does let me conserve energy for situations that would require me to use HDD. **Anyway,** Iris Heart has a nickname that I gave her. **Sadie**. There's a reason behind that."

Tsunemi raised an eyebrow. Blossom frowned but retained her posture.

"She enjoys causing pain to other people."

Blossom's the only one that was shocked about this revelation. Tsunemi straightened her posture and unsheathed her megaphone. "S-sadism. CPUs are capable of sadism. Is that true for Vert?" she said, intrigued.

"Vert? Eh, not going to lie but after seeing Nepgear's porn stash and asking Vert if she given her 'recommendations', she looked like she's on the verge of laughing. Not to mention the fact that she keeps making fun of Blanc's stunted growth and I quite frankly can't be surprised." Neptune said. "But it _**should**_ be surprising in Vert's case, since she was born a CPU. Plutia _**wasn't**_. That's how CPUs in her dimension work, not ours." Neptune said. "I want to save time and have everyone who's involved in this problem to talk it out amongst themselves. However, I don't want you pushed into this if you don't want to, and I would hate to see you get hurt, do you understand? Are you willing to try plan A?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Blossom stood up in a salute and shouted, directly beside Tsunemi's eardrums.

"Yeesh. A lot to take in, but sure." Tsunemi said, motioning her finger in a way that imitates someone cleaning their ears. "I'm not scared."

"Okay then. Nep Jr! Let's get ready for the next quest!" Neptune exclaimed.

* * *

Histoire floated into the kitchen. The scene was dreadful and it took every gram of strength inside her to not pass out.

"Hey Histy! Sorry about the mess I made. Plutsy's a bit nuts, and it was quite apparent that Nepsy didn't have control over the situation. Spilled coffee all over my good clothes…"

"Uzume, it's fine. Plutia seems to be in a situation where she isn't able to vent her… frustrations… so she's probably taking it out on you guys. I got a warning from the other dimension about it." She disconnected from her other dimension's counterpart in fear that she'll be the target of a rant about how Plutia's been getting at alcohol and got the shit beaten out of her. At least, that's what she expected.

"Would be nice if Neptune got that beforehand, but I guess one of you two expected that much." Uzume said. "I need a shrink myself. Been getting rather bitchy recently and seemed to acquire a new transformation that polarizes everyone. When I do it, it feels like a wave of clarity washes over me, as if another dimension gets added to my thoughts even if everything goes darker."

Looking back over her shoulder, Histoire noted that the other CPUs and the governors were in the room outside the kitchen. "Neptune might be good at that. She was able to find peace between the other four CPUs after all, so it wouldn't be beyond her to consult with you on this."

"Yeah, but the thing is, she doesn't like that transformation very much, and for good reason." Uzume said, her face depressing into a frown.

Histoire hovered out to face the four Planeptune officials. "Should we wake Plutia? She's unconscious."

Neptune given Histoire a nod and spoken "Uzume, can you wake Plutie up?"

"Here goes nothing…" A bright light came out of Uzume's palm.


	11. Turn Gate

"**Damn you!** Filthy, two-inch dick!"

Sanna Arnatsiaq cursed loudly in her office.

"You knew. You **knew** this was going to cause problems, and yet you did it anyway. I'm heading this project to run away from this shit. My **family was killed by him**. Why is he here?"

**SLAM**

"What the fuck you mean it's **necessary?!** Fuck it, you want to act like a total bureaucrat prick, you **owe **me for covering your ass. No. I don't care. Next time I ask a favor from you, I'm getting something stupid like an 86-inch TV or a supercomputer. Both are definitely more useful than some shithead fresh from rehab **masturbating** to the sight of dead women in the fucking snow!"

**CLUNK  
SLAM**

"I'm going training."

Someone set up an improvised voodoo doll in the break room. "Pins" made of pencils, knives, and what seems to be toilet brush bristles are stuck into it, while there are sticky notes ranging from disparaging to downright offensive. One of those notes were particularly huge, covering half of the doll's face.

"Someone did the Maersk thing for me, huh? Ha. I needed that."

**WHUMP**

The voodoo doll was hit square in the face, sending it careening to the opposite wall.

"Makes for a shit punching bag though."

* * *

_THBBLLLTHBLLLTHBLLL_

Sanna was practicing some boxing against a speedbag set up in the weight room. It was a tiny thing, no bigger than her head, and wasn't very heavy. In fact, practically anyone could use the thing, even someone as scrawny as Edward Fleming. That wasn't important though, as it was about training her coordination so that using the proper punching bags wouldn't be a waste of time. Everyone in the weight room either knew this or weren't using the weight room anyway.

('Too fucking slow. Not fast enough. 120 hits per minute? What am I, some kind of neckbeard fuck?')

_THBLTHBLTHBLTHBLTHBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL_

('Better. Now to keep this going for two minutes, get in the groove.')

"Hey Ranger, whatrya doin' about the new UN presence?"

"Thinking of new call signs, why? You wanna be FMJ? Aim to please, Redjacket. 's what I do."

"I don't think you're either aiming nor pleased." Redjacket said.

"I didn't know you had a smart mouth. But you're an engineer, so I'm not surprised."

"Don't be a special fucking qanuk with me." (qanuk = snowflake; sounds like "Canuck")

"Ooh. I'm so impressed by your dexterous tongue. You saying you need practice with my language again? I have like ten minutes then I'm gonna bitch at something for amusement."

"Usuk." (Penis.)

"No, I didn't have a sex change. Though Ayrton seems to like that word the most out of my language; I dunno, perhaps he's gay?" Sanna said, her grey hair flowing over her dark tanned skin covered in sweat.

"I heard that, you **emo fuckhead!**" Ayrton says, overhearing their conversation. "Go cut yourself!"

"Also, I thought you know not to use lone words as curses in that language." Arnatsiaq said. "Individual words, besides codes, carry no meaning on their own – how many times have I told you this?"

"Okay, okay! Seriously though, you seem pissed off." Redjacket said.

"Don't worry about it. If you want to worry about it, talk to Dave."

**WHUP WHUP THUMP WHUP**

Pauline Redjacket was hammering away at the punching bag at a slower rhythm than Sanna's work on the speedbag, but she's satisfied with it. She _was_ a career sniper, working behind the lines, and if anything combat-related were to occur, she'll _stay_ behind the lines whenever she can. Punching things isn't in her job description. Running wasn't either, but it was far more practical.

"I don't want to talk about it with any ANZAC, USAF, or MI6 wannabe. I want to talk about it with _you_. Aren't we **friends**? We've been together for a long time already."

"This is older than our friendship. Older than that time we met working for DAWN. The whole reason I worked under it, in fact. Dad wanted me to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mom's death, and why the United States were involved with and intercepted FSB asshats present in home soil."

"Ah… that's why you're mole-hunting. I fail to see the relation between that and today though, unless…"

"One of the 'UN peacekeepers' was a direct perpetrator of her passing. Now give me the punching bag. Your pace is godawful, and I can foresee us doing a lot more grunt work in the future."

Stepping back from the heavy bag, Redjacket moved on to the weights. Ayrton walked past the two girls, deciding to start a pace on the speedbag.

_THBLTHBLLLTHBLTHBLL_

"Slow down Ayrton, you're missing too much already."

_PCKPCKPCK_

"Jabs, Sanna? You don't even try going for an uppercut?"

Looking at Ayrton, confused but keeping her pace, she formulates a response. It took twelve seconds.

"If we come close to those things, we already lose. I want to practice techniques that would earn me distance before testing the grapples, pins, and whatnot. I'm not confident in any Cthulu KO uppercut."

"What, you're not interested in the title of 'the one who punched out Cthulu' at all? I thought you went for names like that, all 'tremble before the goddess of death, the one who took a massive melon-tit fairy that could break the sound barrier and ate out – uh – ate out her ass' or some shit." Ayrton garbled.

"I'm sorry Ayrton, but are you drunk? You're slurring."

"I love my 110-proof buzz. You're not changing that." Ayrton says.

"The **fuck?!** You came to training with a vodka mixture that's 55% alcohol?! Nipangerit!" Sanna responds, incredulous to the fact that he not only disregarded his boss's advice about hard liquor but **gloated** about it. If she did that to a guy, she'd be fired. But fuck that noise.

"Because fuck you for making us go back there without a well-formulated plan." Ayrton said, giving his _boss_ the finger. Not that she gave a shit. He had a point.

"Woah, Sanna. I didn't know you went to Greenland." Redjacket said, oblivious to the drunk chemist.

"Went there for a vacation once. Nice place. Very polite people but we had the absolute _pleasure_ of overhearing a Dane chick's downright _**racist**_ diatribe about Palestinians, Syrians, or some other Muslim shit in a _library_. Where did _you_ learn that phrase though?"

"Internet." Redjacket responds, with a shit-eating grin and a shrug.

"Internet. The internet of all things. Unbelievable." Arnatsiaq shook her head in disappointment.

"It's true. Still, that's one hell of a bomb to drop. How did some crazed gunman-" Redjacket started.

"Not a crazed gunman. Trained assassin. There's a reason why I don't look for gold medals in athletics."

"Besides the fact that you're some kind of test tube freak?" Ayrton said. "Nothing in your control, obviously, but if I was in your position, I'd feel like I'm cheating somehow."

"Smart. Both your mouth and your prick ass." Sanna said. "Reason why you're not fired is because you're sharp. If you keep drinking though, you'll endanger all of us, so don't liquor up on a gun. Anyways, next week I could set up a mandatory seminar for the ground teams to learn Kanien'keha. Pauline, what's your opinion on that?" (Kanien'keha is an endonym for the Mohawk language.)

"No. That person is dangerous. I'm not getting us killed even if my language proves useful."

"That sounds like Kamehameha! If Minata was here, he'd be all like 'KYAAAA' while all like 'HRRG'!"

"Can I slap him?" Redjacket said, noticeably annoyed.

_**SMACK**_ "FUCK!"

"Ayrton. Sleep off that booze. Now." Arnatsiaq did the battery act for her confidante. "Seriously, don't disrespect Redjacket's endonym for her language. You think I'm bad? If she's your boss, you'd be gone."

Ayrton staggered out the gym, stopping at the door to give his boss the finger, and went outside.

"Anyways, that's understandable. I respect your decision, but we need a backup in case for some reason, the enemy figured out how to speak my language. What's something that the Russian could easily know but won't haunt us later?" Arnatsiaq deliberated. This is going to take a while.

* * *

"'Sleep off your booze' says the teetotaler. Idiot. Sleeping while drunk is a waste of time."

Ayrton Carlos was staggering out of the weight room, putting on his winter gear.

('I'm not wasting my time with trying to sleep while alcohol's in my system. I need to go for a run.')

His thinking is impaired. He would probably collapse in the snow.

('Seriously though, how does a woman of that kind of background act like some sophisticated bitch?! One of these days I'm going to end up getting killed by this shit. Urgh. Another drink please.')

Ayrton reached into his pockets. He didn't find the expected glass bottle filled with sweet firewater.

"**Who the fuck copped my booze?! That shit's expensive!"**

Looking for his caninha amarela, given as a gift by his cousin and distilled to (an unusually high) 65% ABV, he looked up to see Sergei trying to make a cocktail with it. For some reason, he had limes. **Limes.**

"**ACID! Mas que droga, merda de la puta! Gimme back my booze!"**

Too late. Sergei poured what little was left in the glass bottle into the jug.

"Torch! If I knew you were here, I'd have brought another bottle for you!" Reaching into his pockets, Sergei revealed that he too brought the same alcohol that Ayrton was looking for. "I made a stop by your place to grab some of this. That was like 180 BRL each. Very sweet stuff."

"How many did you buy?!" Ayrton yelled. "Where's the one I came with?!"

"Uh, two." Sergei said, shrugging at his friend's drunken stupor. "I also got some tequila and vodka."

"Why the **fuck** does it smell like a drunk orgy in here?!" Redjacket said, and marched out of the weight room with a hand over her nose and her eyebrows scrunched. Her free hand was balled into a fist.

"Ha. You done did it now, Acid. Now the bitch of the arctic seas would drag you to your coffin in the earth's core and violently rape you with the five spears of whatevernot fuck it I'm gonna run for a bit and maybe puke in the snow a few times." Ayrton said while buttoning his parka.

"Wait, what?!" That was all Redjacket could've said before Ayrton bolted out of the door, leaving a bottle of clear stuff on the floor of his gym locker. "Eugh! His locker reeks of that shit! Reminds me of those damn fucking islands! Crack! Pot! Booze! So much fucking booze!" She kicked the locker door shut. "Fuck's sakes, Ayrton's so drunk he thought I was his boss."

Looking up, she seen Sergei staring at her. "The fuck you looking at?!" Redjacket said in response. Rosenbaum jolted back to making his cocktail. "That's right. Fuck off."

"I don't even know you, why are you being such an asshole?" Sergei said, his blonde hair drooping and facial muscles clearly betraying his depression. "I just want a drink, no need to be pissed off at me."

**KABOOM**

"The hell?!" Both of them looked outside the building. The primary chem lab is covered in smoke.

* * *

Arnatsiaq, Rosenbaum, and Redjacket rushed outside into the frigid cold. Rosenbaum was stupid enough to try going outside without winter protection, and had his face blasted with snow. Learning from his mistake, he stumbled back inside and closed the door. Putting on winter gear took the three-person team five minutes, and none of them have their weapons.

They shouldn't need firearms to deal with this situation. It's a fire, not a prison break. Instead, they grabbed fire extinguishers, SCBA masks, and in Sanna's case, a fire axe.

As soon as they went out of the door, they noticed Ayrton passed out in the snow.

"Fuck's sakes, someone pick him up before he freezes to death." Rosenbaum says. "He may feel warmer, but his core temperature is plummeting. He'll die if he stays out here too long."

"I thought I told him to sleep off his booze, why's he headed in the direction of the fence?!" Sanna said.

"Alcohol interferes with sleep. I don't recall him to be the type that likes sleeping too much." Sergei responded. "He probably thought that exercising is a better way to sober up."

"I'm not picking him up." Redjacket muttered. "It'll take weeks for the smell to get out of these clothes."

"Serge, while you have a point, both me and FMJ probably have more firefighting experience than you." Sanna said, tilting her head to Redjacket's extinguisher. "Pick up your boyfriend."

"Yeugh… you bitch…" Ayrton pushed himself off the ground, muttering profanities and eventually puked in the snow. "I could have died here you know. Fuck, my ears are still ringing…"

Sanna breathed a sigh of relief. "Now we don't need to pick you up. You just have to walk to your-"

"I want to continue my daily exercise routine, thank you very much. I didn't even get 15 minutes today and I don't want to be out of shape the next time we have to face those _**freaks**_." Ayrton grumbled. "Even then, I'm so, very, sorry about offending you, Pauline. Everything about this mission is just plain fucking depressing…" Ayrton's gloved hand scrunched up, leaving tracks in the snow.

Sergei interrupted Ayrton's monologue. "Come on. You're getting emotional. We need to get out of the cold and into shelter or you'll freeze. How much sleep did you get while sober these past few weeks?"

"I slept **enough**." Ayrton says. "Those girls already bolted on you. Probably calling us a gay couple while they're in the action, cleaning up the mess over there." Suddenly standing up, the jolt was nauseating enough to cause Ayrton to empty his stomach some more.

"I don't care." Sergei said. "If you die, nobody would cover my ass from your boss. Now let's get out of here before-" He didn't even get to finish before Ayrton passed out again. "Damn it, Torch."

As he dragged his friend's ass to the gym, Sergei disappeared in the blizzard, unseen to the ladies for the next few hours. The two women themselves were moving in a sprint directly for the larger building holding an array of volatile chemicals and electrical equipment. Smoke blanketed the skies as penguins huddled outside the fence, a flimsy protection for the wildlife to the humans' activities.

* * *

Takeshi Minata has been analyzing the data he extracted out of the wrist communicator. Most of it was filled with barely-relevant material such as selfies and text messages, but he didn't delete any of it. Several terabytes of information were taken out of the watch, most of it from the internet. A Wikipedia-lookalike was found which held a major amount of useful information, but it also had a lot of content ranging between a spammy pop-up to a memetic hazard. If not for the fact that memetic kill agents don't actually exist, Takeshi would probably be scared.

"Another fucking pop-up taking space in my hard drive. How much of this shit is there in here?!"

Deciding that his intelligence-gathering was substandard because of this chaff, he decided to analyze the Wireshark output he recorded so he could duplicate those results with human technology.

With a good adblocker, damn it!

"At least thanks to that Noire chick I know what to look for, but the only things I gathered was related to weapons history and tabloid jargon. So much of it looks paid off by these characters."

**BOOM**

The lights went out. An emergency generator whirred to life. Minata jolted out of his seat.

"Fuck, that sounds like it came from the other side of the camp."

Looking back at his work, he decides to shut down his computer and call it a day. After all, he can't work if his computer powers down halfway through.

"Good thing I don't have any unsaved stuff."

* * *

Walking to the cafeteria, Takeshi notices David and Edward trying to start up a jeep loaned to them courtesy of the UN. Both of them are in their parkas, which were fashioned to be fire resistant. Deciding that there's no point in not helping the two, Takeshi moves up to inspect the engine. Sure enough…

"Battery's dead. Needs a jumpstart if you want to use this thing."

David scrounged around for a pair of jumper cables. Feeding the red clamp to the battery's positive end, he looked for an appropriate battery or outlet to charge from. Edward found another vehicle that was working properly and waved at the driver. The motorist pulled over and hooked up the other end of the jumper cables in their respective positions. To complete the jumpstart, Takeshi connected the black end to the truck's frame and started the engine.

**KABOOM**

Another explosion rocked the snowy landscape. David's sweating through his parka, steaming up the air around his darkened face and cuffs. "Man, if this shit keeps up the UN would probably send the GOC or some shit, not that such an organization actually exists…"

"Dave, shut the fuck up and get in the truck. I'm driving." Takeshi says. There's enough clearance in the chem lab to house a few trucks, and this one is fitted with firefighting equipment.

* * *

_pant … pant … pant_

"I think we should have brought a truck with us." Redjacket said.

She was feeling exhausted. Leaving the weight room to manage a fire was not her idea of a good day, and her endurance was being pushed to the limit. Even Arnatsiaq, a woman that's literally _built_ to be a supersoldier, is starting to feel the burn.

"I think we should have brought our sports drinks with us. I can feel myself turning into a strip of jerky."

The primary chemical testing laboratory was no more than a block away at this point. Sanna and Pauline stopped themselves as a white-colored truck with blue lettering passed by them.

The laboratory was releasing indigo-blue light from the place where the fires are most widespread.

**KABOOM**

The subsequent explosion came with a bright blue flash that briefly changed the color of the snow.

"**SHIT!** Where's the fucking Geiger counter?!" Redjacket said. "Everyone inside there could have gotten cancer from that light! Ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays…"

"Even with all that money I put into that place, I don't think I could contain a nuclear explosion. Even still, there shouldn't be enough radioactive material in there to prime a nuke." Arnatsiaq said.

"Well either you are obviously wrong or there's someone very wrong in the head rampaging in there!" Redjacket shouted. "Explosions don't cause bright blue flashes out of nowhere! It has to be those samples that we took back from the other universe!"

"How is there enough for two explosions of that magnitude?!" Sanna shouted. "I don't recall approving another mission into that universe!" As she said that, Redjacket urged her to shut up.

She heard voices coming from inside the lab.

"_It's replicating!"_

"_Give it more dissolvent! It can't keep going forever! Damn it, get it away from those capacitors!"_

Redjacket gives Sanna a blank look.

"Do you think we should have got an EMP?"

* * *

Takeshi, David, and Edward rolled up to the primary chem lab's main driveway. At this point the three could make out the chaos that is ensuing on the ground. Hell, even their boss is there!

"Come on, move!" David said, uncoiling a fire hose from the vehicle. Edward grabbed a sledgehammer, while Takeshi fiddled with the controls. "Bloody rubbish! Do you even know how to use that thing?! Get a hose and get moving!" Pushing Takeshi away from the technical equipment, he starts up the pump.

"Eddy! Your priority is rescuing the wounded. Drop that sledge and get a combi-tool! It's electric; you should be able to carry the battery pack by yourself. Takeshi! Watch his ass so he doesn't get hurt!"

* * *

Sanna Arnatsiaq, against better judgment, ran into the corridors of her own architecture without a plan nor a backup. Her priorities are tangled in a confusing mess.

Blue sand, crystalizing over a gas tank. **"Shit!"**

**KABOOM**

Her colleague, Redjacket, was thrown across the hallway. She still had enough consciousness to right herself into a roll to manage the inertia in a way that would soften her subsequent impact.

The energy absorbed from that fuel was enough to continue its rampage. Instantly, it started eating away at the concrete structure, searching for specific transition metals such as copper, gold, or…

"Damn it, Edward, you shouldn't have brought that thing with you!"

Looking back, Sanna sees Edward Fleming with a rescue combi-tool powered by a battery pack.

"Get out of this building **now**, Fleming! If it gets at that thing you will **explode!**"

The blue sand started forming into a dragonfly-like creature and rushed towards the three humans. Tackling the man with a lunge, she rights herself up and picks up her pace out of the building.

"Out of the way!" Another male voice says. Looking forwards, she sees a thinner man holding a fire hose, pointed directly at the two and slammed herself into the wall trying to dodge his blast.

_**PSSSHHHHHT**_

The inorganic assailant was launched to the other side of the hallway, where it was cornered and destroyed by laboratory employees using cleaning materials raided from the janitor's office.

**PSHACK  
CRACK**

The reaction caused another fire. Takeshi aimed his hose at the inferno.

_**PSSSSHHHHHT**_

"HRRGH!" Sanna dropped Ed to block the jet of water coming out of it.

"Také! Stop! Let the flame burn out!" Redjacket said. "It's the only way we could destroy that thing!"

Cutting off the water stream, he looked at the two wearily, with sagging eyebrows and a slouch. Looking around, he starts panicking. "Where's Ayrton?!"

"He wasn't here when these fires started. Get back outside!" Looking to Redjacket, Sanna pointed to the black, corrosive sludge that was still burning. "Is that the last of them?"

Nodding, she looks back to observe Takeshi and Edward hightail it out of the complex. "You see that thing on the way here?" Pointing at a broken set of equipment, she looks closer. "Some power tools are missing here. Burnt sheets of paper too, mostly research documents."

"Someone tried sabotaging us." Sanna said. "And not even a month since Serge went on board."


	12. Terminal Hazard - Engage Now

"Self-replicating, metallic symbiotes that get into peoples' brains and synthesizes energy from their blood. Replication does not occur inside the host, instead forming around metal deposits. I need Ayrton, not to mention the rest of the chemistry team, sober so we can properly analyze this stuff and develop countermeasures. This is why I set up this emergency meeting."

Looking at the rest of the scientists at the table, the boss opened her laptop.

"You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this. There's a whole quarantine zone surrounding this station. We were given semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols. We succeeded in our original mission. We found life outside our universe. We can escape heat death. Now, I'm concerned with controlling the damage that our actions would cause, and I have reason to believe that the damage could be extraordinary. Unfortunate that the first universe we find is one that has weapons this strong."

She switched the presentation to display CPU Purple Heart breaking the sound barrier multiple times and eviscerate a wild animal with a sword.

"And no, the butter knife isn't what I'm talking about. If anyone's uncomfortable with being involved in a situation this dangerous, you can go through the process of cleaning yourselves and returning home. Otherwise, we'll move to our next objective."

Several people stood up and walked out of the door. Ayrton Carlos remained.

"And you, Ayrton. I thought you would be going with them."

"What if you fail? I don't want that thing wreaking havoc back home."

Scratching the back of her head, Sanna moves on to the next part of her presentation.

"So that's the stakes of this mission. Powerful technology in the hands of a theocracy. I'd classify that as threatening and I think that some intellectual piracy is needed to level the playing field. Unless one of you have a better idea…"

A Chinese physicist raised their hand.

"You don't need to raise your hand, just talk."

Standing up and bowing, the other woman adjusted her glasses.

"Why don't we just nuke 'em?"

Blinking several times, Sanna looked incredulously at the other person. Eyes wide open, mouth agape.

"It's simple really. We have an information advantage so it's not like they can return the favor."

Ayrton rises from his seat.

"Boss, can we smack her?"

Shaking her head, Sanna raises her hand. "Let's leave that solution as a last resort. Please don't mention it again, it's frightening that the first solution some people come up with is destroying something with overwhelming force. And what if that isn't a nail that a nuclear hammer would work on?"

"_I make a joke, I get smacked. She makes an insane suggestion, she goes scot free…"_

"You've been very patient with us and your heart's in the right place. But let me assure you, Ayrton, that some big shots _did_ consider that solution as soon as I brought up our problem to them."

"_If my patience isn't rewarded soon, I can't guarantee sobriety."_

"Any other suggestions?"

An American chemist stood up. "Why not take over their economy?"

Silence enters the room.

"Excuse me, but what the fuck?"

"Sell shit so they have an economic dependence on us. Simple, really."

"What would we even sell? Robots? Medicine? Spices?"

"Uh, I don't know, cars? Tourism? Drugs?"

Placing her palm on her head, the older woman moved on to the next part of her presentation.

"Since _**some**_ people here need a history lesson after this, I'm just going to brief the lot of you on what our next operation would entail. We need satellites in orbit around the planet our unknown, and presumably hostile, civilization is stationed on. Not only would we be able to intercept signals within that civilization, but we could do so, theoretically, in complete silence."

Pauline Redjacket laid back proudly at the diagram presented to the rest of the staff, with her arms tucked behind her head and a shit-eating grin on her face.

"That's the first part of Plan A. If we can't directly infect the servers on the ground, or if there's any unknown information that would be helpful in our objectives, we will move on to the next phase."

Opening the briefcase behind her, she unveiled an object that caused everyone around her to stand.

"Now that we reached an understanding, I'm going to brief the control team. Let us move."

* * *

"Ayrton."

The middle-aged chemist turned around to face Sanna Arnatsiaq, his boss.

"Want to see something cool?"

"What, another gun? Not really."

He stormed off to the laboratory under reconstruction.

"I'll show you a way to save lives, not take them."

"Fine. Make it worth my time or I swear to god…"

"Don't worry. Your patience will be rewarded."

* * *

"Here goes nothing."

Uzume cast a revival spell. Plutia stood up and puked into a trash can beside her. Neptune and Nepgear are outside their line of sight so they can't see what's going on.

"I expect that you'll treat my juniors with respect. Or would you rather be a human bowling ball?"

"Uzume, can you progress with the plot already? It's already been an hour since Sadie came inside…"

"_**Nepsy!"**_

Grabbing Plutia by the collar and red in the face, Uzume dragged the narcoleptic CPU to the dining room table and plopped herself in a seat opposite to her and beside Neptune.

Blossom Aisen was sweating profusely at the thought of sitting beside Plutia or Uzume. "I beg your pardon, sirs, but is it a good idea for Plutia to be sitting beside one of us?"

Looking over at her rival, Tsunemi nonchalantly places herself right beside the sadistic CPU.

"If it bothers you so much, you shouldn't have said anything. How did you get such a high security clearance again with that kind of attitude?" The governor said with a calm smile.

Blossom frowned. She doesn't like her point, but she's right.

"Anyways Neptune, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. I know that you have been involved in a spectacular display of fireworks nineteen days ago, and we found some interesting information about the events that coincided with them that made your gig a little split."

"Drop the formalities and lay it on us straight, Tsunemi. What do the Vision of Tari have to do with our interdimensional crises right now?" Neptune said. Then she took a bottle of tuffmill out and drank it all.

"They want new toys to hurt people with." Tsunemi said with a frown. "They tested out a cyberweapon on a batch of robots made by Itachinco. From what I can gather, the fact that some unknown entity from another universe decided to make a trip here was pure coincidence."

Nepgear shifted a little in her seat. "Did they want anything in Snowfac that warranted the use of the cyberweapon? Or were they just doing it to cause panic?"

"No, actually. All robots were accounted for, and none went to the black market." Scratching her head, she looked at Blossom. "It seems like they did it to get at another rival of theirs, as one of the buildings that ended up being levelled was owned by the Ubicronic Alliance. This gang war is getting ridiculous!"

Never before had Tsunemi been more wrong. But none of the people present at the table know that.

"Would this require divine intervention?" Neptune said this with a furrowed brow. She doesn't like getting her hands dirty. After all that's the whole reason why she formulated the laws that enabled the governors to exist in the first place. "This doesn't seem to be related to any enormous, world-ending entities or anyone that couldn't be handled by humans."

"Well, Nepgear wanted them to give me a report on the situation. Besides that, I think you could agree that we would have brought up the situation and ask you to fix it." Histoire said. "They _were_ quite active a few months back when they were engaged in all sorts of destructive activities."

"To think they started out as a bunch of disgruntled workers in my dimension…" Plutia heaved her head up from the tabletop as she said that. "All the way back in the Tari era too. I think for you guys it was about ten years ago but for me it was way before I was born. I got Rei to answer some questions I had about that group after they…" Plutia's previously drawn out voice became quiet and melancholy.

It wasn't very long until Plutia was grumbling outright and far too quietly to be heard by the others.

"Plutia? I can't hear what you're saying, speak up." Tsunemi said.

"They took Iffy and Compa away from meeee!"

Neptune subtly pushed herself backwards in her chair, and eyed Histoire. Thumbing to the kitchen, the book fairy quietly floated towards the room while Plutia continues to cry.

"_I'm going to see if there's any tuffmill or coffee left."_ Neptune whispers to Nepgear. _"Call me when things get out of hand."_ Sneaking off to the kitchen, she faces Histoire.

"I want to talk to Mini-Histy. Give me a moment while I get something to replace all of the coffee Plutia dumped on the floor." Moving cartons and trays, and the odd spotted dick (no, really), Neptune finds what she's looking for: small bottles of chilled espresso, and a six-pack of tuffmill.

"Can we get a grill? I'm not the one that's going to be using it but…" Neptune says while she pointed at the scorched bits of meat that remained on the stovetop.

"Neptune, I got my other counterpart on the line."

Neptune cracked open a can of the blue stuff and started drinking. "Cool beans. Bring her up. Want to know the scope of this problem or whatever."

"Oh my, what happened here? (0_0||)"

_gulp gulp gulp_

"(¬A⌐) Neptune, have you even tried to clean this place? This is a pigsty!"

"Histoire, shut up. I called you to ask some questions."

"(⌐_⌐ #) Fine. I'll answer _one_ question. You better clean up this mess afterwards!"

"What is Plutia's relationship with alcohol?"

"Uh, what?"

"Answer my question, Histy. Was she drinking often after the Ryghts crisis?"

"I… don't… think so? \\_(0_0)_/ I mean, I don't see what she's eating that often and when she does eat it's almost always in private unless her friends invite her to eat with them."

"_Interesting, __**interesting**__!_ Does she have a private fridge?"

"I… also don't know. Why are you asking these questions?"

Neptune grimaced as she tried to piece together a response in the foggy recesses known as her head. "Are you sure you can't figure it out on your o-_h yeah, I forgot you were low specs…"_

"[•`A´•] Are you serious?! Take that back!"

"Prove me wrong and answer your own question! What do you _think_ happened that caused the kitchen to be destroyed like this?! Histoire, look at the floor! There's ceramic shards everywhere! Call me lazy but even I wouldn't just loaf around when someone could end up stabbing their feet!"

"What does **your** kitchen have to do with **Plutia** having a private fridge or drinking alcohol?"

"For some reason she came to our dimension **drunk**, and tried to **fuck** our asses with her liquor!"

Neptune, blue in the scowl that remained of her face, panted heavily as _her_ oracle was starting to display a twinge of shame at the events that unfolded before her.

"Now I'm actually **pissed off**. It's been a long, **long** time since I felt any emotion nearing that of pure **frustration** and now, I'm actually experiencing it. Why do I even try anymore when I shouldn't have gotten out of bed in the first place?" Grabbing a broom, Neptune started to sweep the floor. "Mini-Histy, contact **your** Noire and tell her that Plutia has a **problem** and she's **damaging** herself. Find every source of alcohol. Every **last** drop. Get this **shit** under control. End transmission."

Disconnecting from her call, Neptune's Histoire tries to grab the broom out of the goddess's hand.

"Histoire, you should go back and meet with the others to formulate a plan to deal with the Vision of Tari. I'll clean this enough so none of the governors would end up drawing blood if they wanted something from the fridge. It won't take long. _I swear on my name tuffmill makes me so pissed off…_"

As she swept the floor, Neptune decided to start up another pot of coffee.

* * *

Uzume looks on to Plutia as the, uh, younger CPU was crying at the thought of her IF and Compa being under the custody of the Vision of Tari.

"And they said if I don't bring them five CPU memories they would kill the-he-hem!"

Unsure what to do in this situation, everyone at the table looked at each other with saddened expressions on their faces. Except Uzume, who just stared at Plutia waiting to edge in some words.

"Plutia, we understand some of the situation on your end, and we want to help you as much as possible. Now if you please, can you _calm down_, and explain _how much_ you know about the Vision of Tari's operations in your home dimension so I can plant my skates firmly in their collective asses?"

"Okay… can I have whatever Neppy had? She seems so alert…"

Nepgear slowly pushed her chair back. "Okay, I'll get you-"

Blossom, remembering what Neptune briefed her on, stood up immediately. "C-coffee." Last thing she wants is for Plutia to have her HDD personality leak in and ruin the whole meeting. "_**Just**_ coffee."

"I don't get what you're saying." Plutia said.

After she briefly moved her eyes to Plutia, Blossom looked back at Nepgear. "_Ehrm,_ I want coffee."

Taking a seat, Blossom was nudged by Tsunemi, who had her thumb up from under the table.

"So the Vision of Tari came from Rei's industrial community, unhappy about the way she treated her workers. They also made the anti-CPU technology that we dealt with while facing Bamo and Regu."

"I'm sorry Plutsy, but I don't recall anyone named Bamo or Regu." Uzume said. "It's before my seal was broken, so I want to know some specifics on that."

"They had mind control, along with a bunch of other things that I don't remember…"

"Oh well that's just great. So, the Vision doesn't even _need_ popular support to cause an uprising." Slapping her hand on the table, she looks at the passage towards the kitchen. "Nepsy! Gearsy! When are you going to be finished in there?! By Celestia when they get back…"

"I got some coffee, ladies!" Neptune said as she came out of the kitchen with Nepgear._ "Nep Jr, I know you like this stuff, but you should be a little more patient…"_

"Sit down. So, the Vision of Tari developed anti-CPU tech during Rei's rule, which was how long ago?" Uzume said this as Neptune and Nepgear respected her request.

"Uh… on my world it was a few thousand years ago… but relative to your time I think it was probably a decade or two before our time streams synced." Sipping the espresso given to her by Nepgear, Plutia shook her head as she looked back at the three other CPUs.

"So, anti-CPU weapons. Bad enough. Several **thousand** years to perfect this technology. Even worse. And then there's the Vision chapters in our dimension, stealing our technology. Plutia, do you know any places that those people set up base and are still present?"

"Uh… They were on Hello Continent for a while before Peashy decided to hammer them for fun." Plutia said. "I don't know why honestly, she said she was going to Noire's place and when I asked her why she lied to me she didn't really say anything…"

"_Perhaps they tried taking her to Hello Continent as a hostage."_ Tsunemi whispered.

"It was only after Bamo and Regu realized that Peashy was in their nations that I knew what happened."

"And they… saved her?" Neptune said, surprised. "I wouldn't have imagined…"

"I think they did it just so I won't invade their nation looking for Peashy." Plutia said. "They weren't able to get IF or Compa for me though…"

"Did you talk to Rei about any former locales that they set up camp at?"

"Well… they do like being in places that are very untamed… Like Hello Continent… PC Continent…"

_This conversation already took half an hour Plutia. Hurry the fuck up._

"Oh… I almost forgot… they also like cities, but only to house spies and make money…"

"That's it? Nothing specific?" Uzume said.

"Well, they are rather smart about avoiding publicity in our dimension's nations." Plutia grumbled.

"Ugh. If we are going to get anywhere with solving Plutia's problem we are going to need better informants." Tsunemi said. "Anyways, Nepgear, I have that report that you requested."

Passing a large set of documents to Nepgear, Tsunemi and Blossom presented their findings. "The Vision of Tari was engaged in an operation built off information accessed illegally by an address from Lowee. When the owner of that data was questioned, she claimed ignorance. Forensic analysis of her computer seems to support her alibi, as there was a botnet virus installed on the machine without her knowledge nor consent." Blossom said, flipping through the pages faster than any of the CPUs can keep up with.

Neptune, not particularly caring about whether or not she actually reads the file, is more concerned about _who_ got their machine compromised only to _subsequently_ be used as a vector to hack into top-secret government _crap_ which lead to one of the most explosive acts of terrorism in her history.

"Who's 'her', Blossom? I mean, you're not in public…"

Blossom blurted out the answer immediately. "Chrome Athenus."

"_Oh, heavens no…"_

Neptune, stay in character, or you know exactly what will happen to you.

"_First Plutia tries to lily rank grind me, then this… Okay then, let's remember why that name is particularly bad because it's not like we could go on without that…"_

"Wasn't Chrome that new guild member that was grinding for a bunch of illegal components?"

Okay, fine, there! Neptune, I got Uzume to throw you a freebie. Shut up.

"Wait, so if Chrome was grinding for pirate parts… did you check her machine?"

"No Nepgear, sir. That intel wasn't given to us at in the chain of command." Blossom said.

"That's a drag." Uzume said. "Would have been ironic if we found that trash in her craptop."

"It's not like we have jurisdiction in the matter. Lowee is another country, after all, with a whole other set of rules that need to be followed." Tsunemi said. "That choice bit of intelligence was thanks to luck, not any sort of skill or benevolence. _By Celestia's name those officers were freaky…_"

"Well, I guess our next step is to engage Chrome." Neptune said. "Why do I have a bad feeling about it?"

_bzzt bzzt_

"Oh. Hello?" Histoire said. "What in the world? Neptune, it's Blanc."

"Hello!" Neptune said.

"**FUCKING SHIT NEPTUNE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"**

"Ow!" Tsunemi grimaced.

"**THAT BITCH YOU WERE TALKING TO GOT HER HOUSE BURNED DOWN! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"**

"Wait, wait! Neppy, where's _your_ Iffy?" Plutia said, somewhat more sober now. "And Compa?!"

Plutia's and Neptune's eyes widened as they realized just how bad the situation turned.

* * *

"_We interrupt this broadcast for an important news flash."_

Takeshi Minata was reviewing some news dropped a week ago by a Planeptune news outlet.

"_The Planeptune guild reported that, in their exact words, 'Irene Fireheart disappeared along with three other persons whose families requested for their anonymity.' They posted a request to find and rescue these people and have offered free sessions to train new guild agents seeking to collect its bounty."_

"Why would they be throwing a fit over something like this?" Takeshi shook his head as he opened a search engine inside his earth-model computer. "No results. If only they have a LinkedIn so I can just pop her name in there and figure out what exactly she does. The guild seems to be important though…"

Walking out of his office into the harsh Antarctic winds, he mused the material uncovered in the past week. This operation is far beyond the scale that was previously envisioned.

He needs a team. He's almost literally the _only_ person working on this shit.

"Také! Wait up!"

_PSSHHT_

Skidding to a stop was his boss, wearing a white parka with snow pants and a pair of boots.

"I was able to get you a couple of people to help you with your research."

Looking back at his boss, Minata mused over those words. "A couple?!" Two people are far from enough for him to make a team that could uncover government secrets.

"C'mon, don't give me that look. I promise you, these guys are brilliant. Though they were retired for some time." Sanna Arnatsiaq brushed away some of the grey hair that got in front of her tanned face.

"How brilliant are they?"

"One of them worked for Google and could break new and unusual systems in a matter of weeks. The other's a genius with circuit manufacturing and robotics. Software and hardware. I didn't think that they would be needed for my little portal project but…"

Handing over her radio to Takeshi, Sanna walked over to the engineering office that held their telecommunications equipment.

"I need those people to make up for my shortcomings. Sent you a form about your promotion too."

Sanna gave Takeshi [CONVENIENT PLOT DEVICE x2], that's how brilliant they are. Seriously though, they known her for a while already thanks to her "ambassadorship" in previous years.

* * *

_Speaking of which_, would you, the _readers_, like me to make more _flashback chapters_ for each of the characters? It doesn't feel right to have the boss take up all the spotlight and I _did_ have ideas on what the other characters went through. Cartels, assassinations, warfare and tragedy abound. I do fear that if I go down this road then advancing the plot would take a back seat, and those chapters wouldn't contain a lot of Neptunia-related stuff (though it would further establish _one_ villain's character).


	13. Mr Rat

Neptune, Uzume, Nepgear, and Plutia were sitting inside Planeptune's Basilicom. Two of Neptune's governors, Tsunemi and Blossom Aisen, were seated in front of the goddesses.

From what Neptune understood, many things are happening at once.

**One** – Chrome, who was identified and interrogated by Blossom's subordinates, was suspected of a complicit release of malware that critically affected several major factories in Snowfac Metropolis, the regional capital of Tsunemi's province. Neptune finds this situation weird considering the normally hostile relationship between the two governors.

**Two** – Neptune discovered a group of human or human-like characters that displayed dangerous combinations of skills, able to both evade her, dominate Noire and Uni (not sexually, mind you), knock out Uzume despite the girl being around level 100, and obviously overpower any of the local gangsters and thugs. They are suspected of causing a major explosion in the chaos of the Snowfac sabotage incident three weeks ago. One of the files, sprawled out on the table in front of them, indicate that two unknown parties intercepted each other, one appearing to be fleeing the scene of the VoT's original crime, the other rushing into the city for an unknown reason. Blood stains appeared at the site.

_('Oh wow… we forgot about that. Though I wasn't really there...')_

**Three** – IF and Compa were kidnapped within Plutia's dimension by the same organization, and Neptune's counterparts were not seen for over a week.

"I'll look for Iffy on the way to Blanc." Neptune said. A bright light enveloped the room, and where there was once a female preteen tyke there now stands a towering goddess.

"But Neppy, if they kidnapped my Iffy…"

"Plutia, she should be fine. I hope. If I can't find her today, a missing persons report sent to the guild should be enough to advance the plot."

**Four** – More importantly, Chrome's house is currently burning down thanks to what appears to be an arson attack by the Vision of Tari. Potential evidence is being destroyed, and Blanc…

"**DAMN IT, NEPTUNE, HURRY THE FUCK UP!"**

"You might want to talk to Nepgear about that explosion, as well as that rusted piece of metal that popped in out of nowhere. It might be a good idea to figure out what that stuff is made of."

"Share crystals, Neptune." Tsunemi deadpanned.

"... I'll straighten this out later." Neptune grumbled. The goddess launched herself out of a window, headed straight to Lowee.

_FWOOSH_

The pressure wave generated by Purple Heart's sheer speed whipped through the building, and sent papers flying all over the place. Frantically, Uzume grabbed the documents that Tsunemi came in with. "Share crystals?! How? Why?"

"I don't know, but it's there and there's more. Undisturbed, it doesn't seem to react with the gene codes of any goddess. When in contact with tuffmill, it explodes. There are also some unstable isotopes of numerous heavy metals. There was no choice but to clean out the wreckage as quickly as possible. If we didn't have such a massive robotics industry, the city would be condemned." Tsunemi said. "The only reasonable explanation for it is a highly sophisticated share virus."

Nepgear raised an eyebrow. "But the only natural occurrence of share viruses is from boss-class monsters. How could a _sapient creature_ make a share virus?"

"And what makes you think that boss-class monsters are the only thing that could make a share virus?" Histoire said. "Even a child could make a share virus if they were abused enough."

Tsunemi's eyes widened upon hearing those words from the oracle. "What makes you know about this information?" Blossom covered her eyes as she imagined what this would end up leading to.

"I found the poor thing, covered in scabs and malnourished, a few weeks after I sealed Uzume. It was in the Basilicom close to the CPUs' bedroom. Several staff members committed suicide after that find."

"Including a certain Sakura Aisen." Blossom interrupted, unable to take it anymore.

Everyone at the table fell silent.

"That had to be the longest missing persons report in history. All the grief of not knowing where my grandmother was only got compounded by the fact that someone tried covering it up. Do you want to know what kind of shit I get back home?" Blossom said, turning her head towards Tsunemi. "Fuck you."

Tsunemi shook her head in dismay. "Sorry, I didn't know…"

"No seriously, fuck you." Blossom quipped. "Like hell you didn't know!"

"_**Blossom."**_

Histoire interrupted the governors.

"While I would like to sincerely apologize, we're on borrowed time."

"I'm sorry, **sirs.** But unless you have a better idea regarding how share crystals made a mess like this, that's all we really have going for us right now." Blossom said. "Unless Tsunemi has some crackball conspiracy theory that tops the whole **fiasco** that sums up my family situation."

"Maybe they have enough trauma to emulate that state. I mean, I don't know what it's like in their dimension. Perhaps it's a living hell over there." Tsunemi replied. "Also, these files given some interesting information about their fighting style…"

* * *

Purple Heart was rushing towards the smoke coming from across the lake at Lowee's border. It was thick enough to be seen from several miles away. "Wow. Why can't we get something happy for once? This story had been pure depression for too long." She tried going to Iffy's apartment. Then the hospital that Compa worked at. Then the guild.

They didn't have any clue where the two girls were. Neptune had to file that report.

Hopefully, they would be just fine, taking a vacation going camping or something.

She eyed White Heart in the distance. _"Damn it, these fucking flames are spreading all over the place!"_ Blanc screamed in frustration. Trying to give her firefighters buffs while at the same time suppressing the fires inside the house, the CPU is clearly having trouble dealing with the catastrophe. _"Stay back! I'll open the fucking door!"_

**WHACK  
FSHOOM**

"Son of a bitch!" Blanc's decision to open passage to the burning cabin was rewarded with a blast of flame to her face. She was particularly singed but pressed onwards inside the building.

Neptune had to help, but she needs to be intelligent about it.

One of the firefighters hailed her from the ground. "Lady Purple Heart!"

* * *

Chrome tried very hard to breathe.

Many things have happened three days ago. IF knocked on her door, demanded to see her computer, "by the authority of the guild" and all that crap. And this was incidentally the same day that the Vision of Tari was going to clean out her place. IF came just minutes before a white unmarked van pulled up.

In the resulting shootout, Chrome and IF were injured. Chrome had been scratched and stabbed by IF's blades, and IF was shot in the legs and blasted with a sonic weapon.

If Chrome was a mere human, she would be dead.

As they seen the predicament that befell them, the Vision of Tari moved immediately to cover Chrome's involvement. Broke her windows, "stolen" her property, tied and gagged the guild agent, the usual shit. Chrome set a firebomb in the side of her house, and detonated it after a couple of days, those days being needed to recover from the ordeal and get some water in her system.

**WHACK**

White Heart responded in a desirable manner. Chrome would give her sixty seconds before trying to crawl out herself. Her body was tied up in a manner that would fool any forensic scientist, but she did have to use a spell for it.

"Son of a bitch!"

"Lady Purple Heart!"

Shit. Purple Heart wasn't supposed to be here.

"Hydrosa Edge!"

**BAM  
KRACKOOM**

"Neptune, you dumbass! Hydrosa Edge?! Really?! This is an electrical and gas fire! Fucking numbskull!"

"Hydro Edge!"

**KABOOM**

Well, Neptune's behavior is at least predictable. Chrome internalized this and taken advantage of it. She hopped over to the door leading to the main hallway and banged her head against it.

**RAPP RAPP RAPP  
CRUNCH**

"Shit!" Blanc screamed, trying to shield Neptune from a gas tank about to catch fire.

**KABOOM**

The explosion filled the main hall with flames, blasting the door that Chrome stupidly was trying to break through. The intense heat inside overwhelmed her, causing her ropes to burn up. Dropping to the ground and rolling towards the window, she desperately tries to put out the fires licking her clothes.

"Help!"

"Hydrosa Edge!"

**KRACKOOM**

The hallway was hammered with a barrage of water, created by Purple Heart's sword. Flames eating away at the woodwork were smothered. Smoke and steam billowed into the rooms connected to it.

It was at this point that Chrome passed out, covered in rope burns, shallow cuts, and bruises.

* * *

Sanna Arnatsiaq sat at her desk, after she supervised the research team that has twice penetrated Neptune's dimension. There was an act of sabotage that resulted in the destruction of most of the atmospheric samples taken on the first and second incursions. Several chemicals have been identified that could bind to fats and sugars in the human body and excrete itself through saliva, urine, and sweat.

The one remaining experiment was testing what happens when these chemicals were exposed to radioactivity. Previously, she sent a drone in to test the radioactivity of the other biosphere, and it was in fact lower than average compared to earth.

And apparently, that was the trigger for the chemical's self-replication.

This explains the extreme abundance of the chemical but is contradictory to the biosphere's low radioactivity. If nuclear reactions are exacerbated and exploited by this chemical, then hazardous, radioactive by-product would be expected as an output.

Ayrton walked in the door, seeking an audience with his boss.

"It's been a month since we've been to that place, and we didn't explore other worlds."

Looking back at the papers in front of her, Arnatsiaq nodded. "You interested in looking for someplace new? I'd rather not stumble into another threat until we have this one contained."

"Yeah, but who knows? Maybe we'd find a wonderful place that we could put up a campsite and drink margaritas and enjoy a nice barbecue, with steaks, burgers, and hot dogs…"

Sanna's stomach growled fiercely at the mention of steak. It's been almost an eternity since she had a proper meal of delicious red meat. All her energy is taken from carbs because of the enormous expense in supplying a carnivorous diet. Thinking back to the time she ate meat was like night and day.

"Why did you have to mention steak? You know how long it would take to terraform a planet…"

"So why don't we start now? It's not like you'd be abusing your powers; after all, that's the end goal of all of this research, right? Také even found a resource we could use to further it."

"What? What do you mean?" Sanna said, confused.

"There are deposits of rhodium peppered around the biosphere. They call it "orichalium" but the atomic number is the same. There's even highly-documented uses for it, but I think that by simply extracting the metal we could quite easily make bank."

Sanna waved off that idea with a shake of her head. "That could be dangerous from a macroeconomic perspective. We would dramatically lower the price of rhodium and that would impede research in its extraction. Jobs would be lost in the private sector, and the justification to mine rhodium and its byproducts becomes meaningless. I don't want that to happen."

"Yeah… I see your point." Ayrton said.

"I mean, we could take some rhodium out of the ground in case we really need the money. Not now."

"Still, it's pretty interesting to see rhodium in such abundance over there. It's not like they have it in the same abundance as other metals like iron, but it's still cheap enough for an industrial use of it."

"Seriously, stop. You got me thinking of eating meat again, I don't need some subliminal suggestions of extracting rhodium out of an alien world."

"Whatever you say, princess."

"So, you want to use my machine?" Sanna said.

"What, that long thing you keep in your drawer? Not into that kind of stimulation."

"You know exactly what I meant."

Ayrton paused for a moment. He has taken Sanna's offer into consideration, but his own religious background and upbringing brought some questions.

"Firstly, it's expensive. Even still, if I do it, what would happen with my soul? Would multiple "me"s reach heaven or hell, or would it be that my soul gets moved back in time with my memories erased? How would that even work? Is this how god intended us to be?"

Sanna had a response to that. "If it wasn't, why isn't he saying anything? I'm fine with it, even if…"

"I mean, it doesn't help that you're being egotistical about the whole thing."

* * *

_"Dumb broads thinking they could just lump all the grunt work on me just because I was a former ASIC member. Why the hell am I getting lumped in with bitches like Filyn who can't keep tabs on their superiors? Why are we stealing shit from her, jumping guild agents, and fucking around with the CPUs? Where's the profit in all of this? Are we so royally screwed up that we need Chrome to stick out her neck for us? This doesn't make sense. She has to be fucking with us!"_

Linda's grumbling is far from audible to most people, but Warechu can hear her and it's driving him insane. "Yeah, I don't like this either, chu. But you know what I like even less? Some broad that spouts incriminating evidence for the rest of the world to hear. Now shut up and help me stuff this bitch in the trunk."

"At least you have the pleasure of not knowing who's in the trunk. Lazy shit-eating rat."

"Shut the hell up, you know very well why I'm using splints right now. How would I know that kid was a CPU? We run into unsupervised kids in the wilderness all the time!"

"What can you even do that I can't?"

"Viral procs. Poison. Paralysis."

"Fuck you. I don't need you. I don't need your technical expertise."

"You need me to keep a stable job, chu."

"Quit talking out of your ass. I brought you here, not the other way around."

"You call this stable? We're mercenaries at best! This shit is dangerous, doesn't pay well, and all we did so far is attract more attention from the CPUs! Even now the only thing that this job is good for is doing us fuck all! You need to be a better judge of opportunity, chu."

"Says the scavenger that got himself blasted by a random CPU." Linda deadpanned. "At least we're doing things that we're experienced in. After all, we're alive. Your alternate counterpart is dumb as bricks. What's the opposite of a furry again? I forgot, but he's definitely that."

"Like hell I know, chu. Your former accomplice sounds like a downright freak. Glad you got rid of him."

"What fucking choice did I have? He keeps bitching to that sadistic pink fuzzball Compa about what we're doing. Dead fucking weight. Now he works in retail."

"Interesting. Not really. Get ready. We're heading to Leanbox."

**THUNK**

"Count your lucky stars, because at least you're not doing something so fucking humiliating." Linda replied, unsatisfied with the smartass response she got.

"_Ratting someone out like that, chu."_

Linda looked over to Warechu. Unbeknownst to her, she has every reason to be suspicious of his presence. After all, he's in league with Rei Ryghts, and that information's known only to that CPU.

"_What, was he dropped on his head or something?"_ Warechu said, and preserved the charade.

* * *

Neptune has been hammering away trying to uncover the location of both IFs and Compas. Her work resulted in a big fat load of nothing, and it's been three weeks since Plutia's counterparts were nabbed.

"If we don't get those chips by the end of the month, they would be coming back in body bags."

The month closes in only three days. If they die, which Neptune doesn't want regardless of her profession, it would be an enormous scandal, and she probably won't live through Plutia's punishment.

"Neptune?"

Histoire came in, bearing a tray of flan and what could only be described as haggis.

"You talked to Rei?"

"Yes. The CPU memories should be coming soon. It's unfortunate that we don't have any other choice…"

"Don't bother. I haven't been able to get any sleep recently. You just do the deed. I'm gonna try to nap, but you know how hard that is when…"

"Yes, of course. Get some rest. Don't worry, we won't let them die if we can help it."

"You'd better."

Before pulling her blanket over her head, Neptune looked at the flan, which she so affectionately refers to as "pudding". It looks delicious, but she can't eat it.

She did at least eat some of the offal, so she doesn't end up losing too much weight.

* * *

"Takeshi. If you don't mind, I'd like you to oversee the reverse engineering of this thing."

**THUNK**

Sanna unloaded a large satellite onto the table.

"This collided with our station today. I assume it's communicating with the technosphere below, so if you can get us into cyberspace with it, it would be great."

"What, like in the Matrix? Can't do that. Impossible. Also don't drop electronics like that, you'll break it."

"I'm going to jump in a few minutes. Even packed parachutes. Tell the others I shouldn't be long."

"Who are you bringing?"

"Dave, Torch, FMJ, and Serge."

"I know Dave, who are the others?"

"Ayrton Carlos, Redjacket. I have beef with Serge and I don't want him sabotaging the only way back."

"If you want a bullet in your back, we have a lot of pistols."

"My thoughts exactly, but if I'm going to do that I might as well make it look like Serge's responsible. Besides, I updated my backup plan recently. I'm not afraid."

"Whatever you say."

Walking out to the cold snow, she looked back towards the comm tower. A large fiber-optic cable snaked out of the building and into the other parts of the complex. This may be the last time she would see her office, but her will and experience would live on.

"You ready, Torch?"

"Any time, Ranger."

"Serge?"

"With how much surplus you guys got your hands on, I'm surprised that you'd need my help." The UN official adjusted his armor, checking over the guns (and the drugs for his personal use) that he brought to the lab site.

"You brought automatic weapons. We needed explosives, but I'm happy you were so _considerate_ of our needs. Do you think a hostage situation is a good enough reason for us to use them?"

"Well, I read over the material. Even got a grenade launcher for Torch too."

Ayrton questioned his friend's willingness to go through with the mission, despite apparently being fucked with before. "Really, Acid? You aren't asking why you're being dragged along with us?"

"Well, your boss is a paranoid asshole. Why should I ask?"

"Set your camouflage to paratrooper standards. We're doing a high opening landing." Redjacket said.

The control team opened the portal, revealing nothing but blackness and the glow of four major cities.

"My intel tells me we're headed towards that green light nearing the planet's equator. Our target is on the shoreline between that and the purple-lit city. Remember your passcode?" Sanna asked.

"We are the Aurora beyond the Australis!" Dave cheered. He's proud of that.

"Bad. Ass." Torch said. He pointed to the weapons on the rack. "Are we even allowed to use those?"

"Help yourself."

Grabbing a C8 and donning her oxygen mask, Sanna looked back at her companions.

"So, Sanna, how did you figure out where the target was?" Redjacket asked. "The detail on this file is impressive!"

"Satellite footage and lots of math. Thank Takeshi later."

"Good shit." Ayrton said. "Last one to land buys me a drink!"

Tightening his pack and securing his weapons, Ayrton jumps through the wormhole with a double backflip and a pirouette.

"**YAHOOO!"**

"Well, I'm not doing it." Redjacket said. "Geronimo!"

"Jacket! Wait up!"

One by one, each diver jumped through the portal and opened their chutes. Into the darkness below, the five operatives headed to their next destination.

Leanbox.


	14. CANCELLATION

I'm going to make an announcement...

This story is cancelled. I apologize to anyone waiting for an update to this piece, but as it turns out I have been unable to come up with something creatively that would salvage the spaghetti code this story runs on and make a good piece out of it.

It was a fun experiment while it lasted. I learned a lot from it, and that's why I written this dreg in the first place.

I'll post the remnants of the incomplete chapters to this story, and leave it on the site for archival purposes.

Some important documentation before I go:

Serge's introduction was a knee-jerk reaction to stats the public can't see. His introduction and further inclusion in the story worked just as well as anybody expected, and is the primary reason why this story is cancelled. I can't write like this.

I didn't do enough research on chemical terms, didn't think properly about how grunts conduct their business, and knew nothing about their laws. The story became more and more ridiculous as time went on and I didn't really want that.

I started writing this to brush up on an important weakness of mine - I can't write to save my life. At least now I'm somewhat better than when I was before I started, but nonetheless it was not therapeutic.

The canon characters never got the opportunity to show any traits from the original source in a significant manner.

In the end, if I stop enjoying it, what's the point? I best end the story when I realize I can't add anything more substantial rather than cheaply kill off the characters.


	15. UNFINISHED - High Altitude

"**YAHOO!"**

A woman in full combat armor and an oxygen mask executes a quadruple counterclockwise twist, then a forwards somersault. She then gets a handle on her parachute and opens it.

**FWHUP**

Not needing her reserve parachute, she instead adjusts her eyes to the unusual sight beneath her.

This alien world is sprawling with four major cities, each illuminated mainly in one specific color. To the west, purples and pinks illuminate the cityscape. South, greens. East is colored in a rich indigo hue, and north is a bright and cheery white.

This phenomenon feels deeply unnatural to her.

"_Ugh. This fucking place gives me the creeps."_

"Says the woman that sent us here in the first place."

Distracting Sanna from the spectacle below was her teammates, rushing downwards towards their target.

"Hey guys, I thought we said this was a high opening jump. What're you doing?!"

**FWHUP  
FWOOSH  
FLOOMP**

"Cluck, cluck, cluck! All I hear are a bunch of chickens!"

**FLUMP**

Torch opened his parachute after overtaking the other four divers by at least ten meters.

"Bitch, bitch, bitch, all I hear is a drunk with a hat addiction." Redjacket said.

"I only have three and two of them are from work, what do you mean I have an 'addiction'?"

"Ever played TF2?"

"No."

"Wow. You are sheltered."

Redjacket sped towards the landing point stationed at Leanbox's shoreline on Planeptune's side. Observers on the ground can only, and just barely, make out distant specks in the sky, far too small for radar to detect and extremely difficult for the naked eye to perceive.

"So, everyone know what we're getting into?" Serge asked.

"Our target is situated a few hundred kilometers south of the shoreline bordering that city-state. We're heading west of where the base is supposed to be and navigating eastward." Dave said. "Be advised that the terrain may be like that of Vietnam or Cuba, so expect everything."

"You sure that hostages were captured by this group?" Torch said.

"Takeshi showed me the metadata. Plan A would be done quietly." Dave responded. "Our target is a highly important individual with connections to the institutions of another city-state. Her captors are either a criminal organization or an insurgency and are demanding a high price for her life.

"I can guess that we're not paying." Sergei guessed. "Not that I'm worried about whether or not we're bribing these assholes, but what happens if their demands aren't met?"

"They would execute her within 12 hours." Dave added. Obviously trying to ransom with the lives of hostages is illegal in our world since it violates what soldiers could do to civilians and prisoners of war. "I'm sure you won't have any moral qualms about this operation."

"We're saving, not taking, lives." Sanna said. "Can we avoid talking in either English or Japanese? Inhabitants here know those languages and we need whatever language barriers we can get."

"What about Russian?"

…

Sergei's confusion crept into his voice as the silence draws on for over a minute. "What?"

"I'm dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity that I exhibited this week." Sanna said. "I know a little bit of Russian, but if you can speak my native language that's fine too. Also, use hand signals if you can. If we don't get heard on the ground, we don't get shot at in our backs."

"Understood."

* * *

Vert had an extremely unusual week. There's literally nothing for her to do at the Basilicom, and the other CPUs, and their candidates, were busy. Even raiding other guilds in 4GO has become meaningless since player count was at an all-time low and nobody's even marginally providing her a challenge.

Planeptune and Lastation were pretty much closed off dealing with a relatively large crisis that even the lazy, procrastinating pudding-addict Neptune's not ignoring.

Blanc meanwhile is training her CPU candidates in some far, distant castle (this was the first time Vert learned that Blanc even had a vacation home, let alone a castle) and she was unceremoniously shooed out by Mina. She at least took a sneak peek at what Mina's writing. Unlike Blanc's crappy half-assed fanfiction, it was damn good.

The interdimensional portal to Ultradimension was locked.

"Big Sis Vert, I'm done with the paperwork for today!" Chika said, bouncing up and down to Vert's room.

"Oh, that's… great… Thanks."

"Something wrong?" The verdette said.

"It's just… I now have nothing to do. None of my MMOs have skilled players online right now. Nobody beat any of my high scores at any of the usual arcades I come to. The CPUs and the candidates themselves are busy. Even Neptune's working."

"Neptune? Working? Preposterous!" Chika shrieked, backing towards the wall.

"And on a diet too! She's been eating high-protein meals for a couple of weeks now!"

**THUMP**

And just like that, Chika fainted.

"Oh my, it really does seem that all of those acting sessions backfired for you."

* * *

Nothing changed for them the next day. Not even quests came up for Green Heart to do.

"Um, want to go kayaking?" Chika hates to admit it, but Neptune working might be a sign that they need to train themselves for some unseen threat.

Climbing out of her desk, Vert shaken off the lethargy that coursed through her muscles.

"I _wish_ I had something else to do, but it's a welcome distraction. Where should we go?"

Chika had one idea. "Halo Forest?"

"It's awfully noisy this time of year. Even the Golden Summit's quieter than it. Though, there's not many alternatives in Leanbox right now and I don't feel like flying all the way to Planeptune or Lastation…"

Perhaps there is a disadvantage to industrializing every hectare of the Leanbox continent.

"Halo Forest it is, then." Vert said, walking to the back room to look for oars and other equipment to take with them on their trip. Perhaps she'd come across a monster or two.

* * *

_SNAP_

_POP_

_THUMP_

Torch got himself stuck in a tree. The other four were trying to help him get down from his useless perch. He never went skydiving before, so he only has elementary control over his parachute.

"Ammut." (Down.)

_CRACK_

_PLOOSH_

* * *

Vert sighed in contentment. After going down the white-water rapids of the Halo Forest, she and Chika Hakozaki had set up camp and were currently just relaxing and enjoying themselves.

"It felt like centuries since I had that much fun!" Chika said.

"Oh, you are too unkind. It was only 20 years since we spent time in these waters."

_SCKRACK PLISH_

The sudden noise silenced the two for a few minutes.

"Strange."

The two risen out of their tent to figure out what that noise was.

"It came from down east."

Carefully stepping towards the source of the noise, Vert and Chika stalked behind the bush to avoid startling the perpetrator.

_PLOOSH_

"What in the sam hell…"

A broken branch fell off a tree and landed into the river. It looked like a lot of weight crashed into the organism only a few seconds ago.

"Chika! Language."

"Sorry, big sis. Any tracks?"

Vert looked towards the ground, searching for footprints, blood…

_SQUEEE_

"That might give us some answers."

* * *

Linda sprinted towards Leanbox. She barely held consciousness as her pursuer kept his pace steady.

Both were bleeding profusely. Linda had a deep gash in the side of her arm, while the side of the Squeed pursuing her was riddled with bullet holes.

Linda doesn't even have a gun!

"Who shot this son of a bitch?!"

Doesn't matter now, since Linda has a very, very angry animal trying to vent its frustrations on her.

"Aren't these damn things supposed to be intelligent!? Come on, snap out of it!"

"Cyclonic Ratnapura!"

"**FUCK!"**

_TANG SHING TANG THUMP_

Linda parried all of Vert's attacks as the goddess, _and her oracle_, attacked the fugitive and monster together with a combination attack.

_SHICKLT SHICKLT_

"Since when did you do anything with your oracle?!" Linda shrieked.

"I'm not letting you get away with that heresy!" Chika asserted.

_TANG_

"You lot of absolute freaks!"

_CLINK_

As Linda said that, her trusted pipe broke from the stress of redirecting the spear maneuvers of the oracle and the goddess. Discarding the pipe and casting a spell on herself to increase her speed, she sprinted straight for Leanbox instead of letting the goddesses find out where her hideout was.

"I won't let you do that! Derminus Lock!"

"Ack!"

Linda's overwhelmed with a wave of green energy coming out of Chika's palm, causing her to fall over and stumble downwards into the river water. She feels several negative effects washing over her, most of them debuffs to defense and mobility. However, one debuff stood out to her.

"Why the hell are the CPUs packing a fighter that could use a virus debuff?"

**WHUMP**

"Two reasons: Rei Ryghts, and Uzume Tennouboshi." Chika said, pointing her spear directly at Linda's throat. "Though I have to admit, it's a sadistic spell to use, wouldn't you agree?"

Linda spat blood on her face in response.

"Scum." Chika raised her spear just to give her more room to kick Linda into a tree.

_TANG_

As she grabbed a crowbar from underneath her grey hoodie, Linda pulled the spear downwards into the mud beside her, and using the added inertia she brought her head closer to Chika's until…

**WHUMP**

She planted her forehead right in the bridge of Chika's nose and threw her body to Vert's side. Of course, the goddess isn't going to take abuse of her oracle sitting down and retaliated immediately. She stabbed at Linda's legs and wrists hoping to avoid hurting Chika by accident.

_TANG SHING_

Unfortunately, Vert's weapon graced Chika's sides despite the goddess's best efforts, where Linda was using her unconscious body as a human shield.

"Fight fair!"

"Not interested, you damn broad."

**FLOOMP**

Hitting Green Heart square in the eyes with smoke bombs, she kicks Chika towards Vert and ran.

* * *

('That was close.') Torch thought, checking his desert eagle again for wear. ('Two birds with one stone is lucky enough. This was a goddamn lottery ticket.') Giving a thumbs-up, he and the others went back to sneaking through the armed complex. ('They should be distracted long enough for us to do our thing. Better load this with cramping agents and tranquilizer.')

Clear, plastic shells holding disintegrating darts were loaded into the .44 magnum magazine.

('Man, this is all sorts of illegal. I hope that the boss doesn't notice.')

_PSHTCK_

Seeing a lone sentry ahead, Torch fires a round, hitting his target in the leg.

The drug worked perfectly. The victim fell as the cramp took effect, and a few minutes later he's fast asleep. It wasn't not a very comfortable form of sleep, but at least not a permanent one.

('I don't know what this drug does to people under the effects of adrenaline, but I could at least take a guess. This has no real combat effectiveness. Still useful if we need to interview enemy soldiers though.')

* * *

They were able to get into the complex and sneak around indoors looking for where their targets may be. All sorts of creatures inhabited the place, some of them displaying dragon-like features, and others looking like bipedal rats. The humans appear dressed up in gangster-like uniforms ranging between jumpsuits to a pair of jeans and loose flannel shirts.

Dave held up an isolated guard and took him into a back room, which was apparently reserved for janitorial staff. Hopefully he'll be able to figure out the location of the prisoner from him.

"D-don't shoot me please!"

"Calm down, don't make that much noise or you'll give me a reason to shoot you. I just want you to answer me a few questions, and then we'll be on our merry way, understand? You're not under arrest, we won't try you for any crimes, you have my promise! I just have one thing that I want, and I know you have it. We're not who you think we are." Dave decided to use English since he's trying to interrogate this person.

"Like hell I believe that, I know who you are, you're here to fuck us and destroy our livelihood!" His captive said, trying to get his hands on Dave's weapon.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You are so, so far from the mark. We're what you could call… analysts. We don't really care about your religious wars, your drugs, or your street cred. But I can assume that you don't have respectable connections to the… authorities in this area?"

"Fuck you! We aren't doing anything wrong!"

Dave could rebuke that statement immediately, but he knows that in order to get answers out of someone else he needs to calm his target down.

"So, you say. But I don't really care about that right now. Right now, I know that if you help me, those authorities would have a lot more trouble on their hands."

His captive went silent.

"What do you say, **mate**?"

Still no response.

Torch came in behind Dave, closing the door behind him.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Your hostages."

"I know nothing of what you're talking about."

"Don't be bloody daft. We're in a clearly military structure, and you obviously aren't ANZAC."

"What the hell is ANZAC?"

"None of your bloody business. You won't know even if you looked through all four counties."

"While I appreciate your clever use of poetry, if you keep giving away information, I would probably have to kill this man, you know what?" Torch interrupted. "They may be from a totalitarian society, but they aren't born stupid. We clearly aren't working for anyone they know of."

"Alright, I believe you." the captive said. "Second floor down, room E5AE3. You can't miss it, it's the tiniest room in the complex."

"Stupid place to put prisoners of war. You're fucked up, you know that?"

Before the captive could respond, Dave bound and gagged him with his used parachute.

"We're using the portal to extract those people. Last thing we need is to walk into a trap."

Dave looked down at his prisoner. Torch was already passing off the floor plans that were stored beside the janitor's supplies. Taking photos and sending them back home, he steeled himself for what they planned on doing next. A direct breach into the hostages' cells.

"I don't know if this is obvious or not, but if you're lying, we'll know."

* * *

Warechu (UD) had been assigned by Rei Ryghts to free Plutia's kids from the Vision of Tari.

While he didn't like to admit it, the only real reason why Rei ever ends up in charge of anything is because she can be legitimately brilliant when she tried.

Of course, it doesn't help that he's stuck doing the grunt work for her, but the Vision is obviously hostile to Rei. There's no chance that she'll be able to do the job that Warechu was supposed to do.

Yet here he is, this close to Compa, and yet so far.

He obviously didn't want her dead, but there's no way he's going to be able to simply force his way out. He thinks of an alibi to throw off the guards.

"Chu… do you think it's a good idea to have these girls in such a small cell? If someone opens a portal inside there's no reasonable way to stop them and secure our ransom."

The guards looked at each other, and then looked back at the cell. Indeed, Warechu's right in some regard. They're not certain that the cell is protected against a warp in spacetime.

"And I know you know that there's ways to travel past dimensional barriers. How did we know about Plutia? Rei Ryghts? I don't think it's even limited to goddesses, chu, because I heard from someone else that there's this broad that doesn't have other enormous powers and can pop into whatever universe she wants! Why don't we move these ladies to a cell that's easier to observe?"

_CLICK_

The cell doors unlocked.

"Good, now let's just escort these girls elsewhere, chu."

**FSHZZZZZT**

"Chu!? I didn't want to be right!"

**RRRRMB** **BANG BANG**

The guards were shot down as a group of soldiers burst out, grabbed the girls, and moved back into their portal with the hostages.

**KRACKOOM**

The resulting explosion flung Warechu to the other end of the hall, as a swarm of guards rushed in. The response was futile as the portal closed before anyone could do anything about it.

* * *

('Looks like our intelligence was right on the money.')

**FSHZZT**

A portal opened in the back of the room Torch and Dave were in.

Sanna, Redjacket, and Sergei were trying to get back home.

"Come on, boys and girls, we don't have all bloody day! Move it!" Dave said, forgetting the boss's orders.

Redjacket reached the two males in time and hunkered down behind Dave. She screamed in the radio.

Roughly translated, the words would be: "Sanna, what's taking so fucking long?!"

**KRACKOOM**

"Tuurngait!" Sanna screamed back.

('A demon?! The fuck you mean by that?') Torch thought in fright.

He peeked his head around the corner and saw Sanna as she rounded towards it, hand over her head as another figure, dressed in bright cyans and pinks rushed behind her. It spawned dark blue boxes beside her and fired them at her. Sanna responded with a dodge roll. An unknown female voice boomed out.

"I will teach you to respect the authority of our Vision! CPU candidate Mage Sister will **destroy you!**"


	16. UNFINISHED - No Opening

"I will teach you to respect the authority of our Vision! CPU candidate Mage Sister will **destroy you!**"

Mage Sister's spellcasting is amateurish to other natives of her world, but to the aliens, her powers were extraordinary and frightening. Conjuring spheres and cubes beside her and launching them at enemies with explosive power is a poor use of SP. A good way to use SP would be to enhance one's own powers, create projectiles in direct contact with one's body, or create explosive force directly on a target.

Even then, Mage Sister spent a long time practicing that spell, so she's reasonably good at it. Seeing her quarry running away from her however makes her realize that perhaps it's a good idea to forgo whatever defensive bonuses that attack would grant and go for a much more sinister spell.

**FZSHACK**

Tendrils of electricity flowed through her fingers and shot towards her target. Despite the fact that she landed a direct hit, however, her enemy just kept running.

"**BAIXO!"** a distinctly male voice blurted.

Her quarry dropped to the ground, twisting into a horizontal barrel roll.

"What?!" Mage Sister halted, overwhelmed with confusion.

**POP**

Suddenly, she was blinded by a flash that came out of nowhere, and her prey disappeared.

"Who did that?! **Where are you!?"**

No answer. Rage only amplified in her consciousness.

"**Show yourself!"**

**KABOOM**

She cast a loud, explosive spell that enveloped everything around her in fire.

**BOOM**

A shell landed directly at her face.

**PSHONG**

Her transformation was reverted, changing herself from a goddess figure of decent height to a small tyke barely coming up to an adult's pelvis. But she's still not down yet. She may be level 17 but it doesn't mean she's unprepared. Taking a share crystal out of her inventory, she crushes the rock in the palm of her hand and closes her eyes, focusing on the energy held within.

**FWEEEE**

And instantly, she transformed back to her stronger form.

**POP**

Mage Sister formed her cubes into a defensive shield in front of her, absorbing the impact of the blast.

* * *

"Droga… Sanna, onde está Sergei?!" Ayrton queried, his Portuguese flowing fluently through his lips.

_("Fucking shit. Sanna, where's Sergei?!")_

"Tusaatsiarunnanngittualuujunga…" Sanna stammered, Inuktitut rapidly torrenting out hers.

_("I can't hear very well…")_

Turning to Redjacket for a translation since Ayrton fucking sucks with his boss's native language, he only got a finger making a digging motion into her ear.

"Onde. Está. Sergei?" Ayrton repeated his last question. He emphasized every word.

"Uh… Aanaar***" _(Something to do with bleeding, but who or what wasn't communicated.)_

Redjacket held out her hand, covered in enemy blood. That's the best she could understand from that passage.

Ayrton understood the gist of it. "Mas que merda!" He cursed aloud.

**BOOM**

"Naamik!" Sanna's reaction to the grenade launcher being fired closely towards her position was understandably panicked. She kicked herself mentally for letting her instincts kick in at a time of crisis.

**PSSSSHHH**

Smoke filled the hallway that Mage Sister was flying in; the entity bathed in a crimson light.

* * *

**BOOM**

Vert heard an explosion coming from the north, as she fed Chika a life fragment to treat a hemorrhage given to her courtesy of a former ASIC member. It won't help that bruise on her forehead though.

"Okay, that's a bang that can wake the dead." Chika slurred. "Maybe literally this time."

"Oh, hush. You're not dead, Chika. Stop being so dramatic, it's so tiring."

"I'm not being dramatic." The oracle replied.

"I mean in general. You got yourself hurt thanks to your talents twice already."

Looking over to the dying squeed that the two nearly slaughtered, they noticed that it was trying to get away from the two goddesses, leaving a trail of blood.

"Oh well, free XP." Vert said, raising her spear for a finishing blow.

"Vert. No." Chika said, putting her hand out in front of the CPU.

"What's bothering you?" Vert said.

Chika pointed to dents in the squeed's soft hide. Bullet holes.

"Do you think… that this was caused by a third party?" the oracle hazarded. "I don't recall that woman ever using a firearm on us, and those wounds look awfully large. I'm surprised we didn't hear gunshots."

Vert combed her hair with her fingers. "Hm… Noire was always better at the senses than I am. Perhaps that explosion's connected to our little problem here? We shouldn't dilly dally."

Using her spear to right herself, Chika did a few twirls with it like a baton and steadied it to the ground.

"I guess we should get going." Casting a novice healing spell on herself that she learned from Nepgear (of all people), Chika extended the favor to the monster, before giving it a kick in the head to emphasize the fact that it should stay away from human settlement. "It seems to have come from an old military base that used to be used during the CPU shift. Hopefully it's a rusted old bomb that we somehow lost."

"I don't know, Chika… maybe it's a nuke from the Tari period." Vert marvelled, doing her best Neptune-does-meta-shit impression that her face can muster.

"Big sis… Tari doesn't exist in this dimension…"

"Humor, Chika. Learn to take a joke once in a while." Vert said, smiling.

* * *

Torch noticed how quickly his incendiary shells were extinguished by the unknown enemy.

"Porra…"

His frustration was channeled into his weapon, stuffing shells in haphazardly. He thought – a new strategy to beat Mage Sister – blind the CPU candidate through an opaque adhesive. The enemy, effectively indestructible, but fortunately, not very smart. He hoped he can outsmart the little shit – not ideal, but it had to do as he sought a chance at rescuing one of the few friends he ever had.

"We are the Aurora beyond the-"

His launcher loaded fast enough; it didn't take long for Mage Sister to find his position. He fired.

**FOP**

The resulting explosion jammed his weapon. Still, it spread sticky gelatinous goo all over the target.

**THUNK**

Torch ran like hell through the portal, where Redjacket and Dave were waiting for him. He took aim with his desert eagle and fired at his discarded launcher.

**KABOOM**

The room was filled with smoke. Bright, cyan-blue paint and emerald-green smoke filled the hallway behind Mage Sister as the portal closed.

**SCHLICKT**

But not before Mage Sister revealed her counter. Cubes formed a wall in front of her, protecting her from the brunt of the blast. She cast a spell, funnelling itself through the turquoise slime.

**KRACKOOM**

* * *

On the other side, the explosion rocked the wormhole machine.

The portal destabilized and created a massive electromagnetic pulse that caused a blackout in Leanbox, which shorted out almost – if Sanna wasn't prone, this would be a very different matter entirely – every piece of electronic equipment in a five-mile radius.

"Alianait…" (Wonderful.) _('Just FUCKING wonderful! Exactly what I needed! That damn bitch!')_

Well, there's three things she needed to do. Find Sergei's position. Re-establish contact back home. And most importantly – avoid further contact with the natives.

Not like that's going to be easy.

('The last known position of that damn criminal was getting his ass handed to him. Personally, I'd much rather him get fucked with a bat wrapped in barbed wire. If he dies, this world would die with it. My ego won't let this mission come back with a failing grade in multiversal stewardship, that's for damn sure.')

**BOOM**

She sees Sergei, lying in a pool of his own blood. She picks him up and slings him over her shoulders, his weight almost feather-light compared to her unnaturally trained strength.

('Fuck. Gangsters. Searching for us. I need a way up and out of sight.')

Loading a drum clip into her carbine, Sanna used the short period of time to scan her surroundings.

**KABOOM**

The explosions only gotten closer. Mage Sister sounded _pissed_.

"**SHOW YOURSELF!"**

That's the last thing she wanted to do right now. She identifies two main routes that she could take – upwards, visible to everyone, or downwards, and further from the surface. She chose downwards, and sprinted towards an elevator shaft, making sure to fasten Sergei onto herself using his parachute.

**GA-THUNK**

**BRRAAAAAANNNNNGGG**

Tearing off the elevator's doors using her bare hands, she marvelled at the fragile machines that people used to move between floors. Mercilessly she brought her axe straight towards the rope that held the elevator stable several floors above. The machine had brakes to stop it from reaching terminal velocity.

**GA-THUNK**

To increase confusion in the ranks, she climbed downwards, took the liberty of removing the elevator doors there, and lifted herself skywards to face her destination.

It helped none that the fire alarm set off; her thoughts clouded as the sensation flowed through her. She began her climb upwards with the assistance of a ladder used by maintenance staff. How the fuck…

* * *

A Vision of Tari security operative was halfway through his midnight lunch as a wormhole appeared in the cell containing four critical assets for their operations.

"Shit."

Reaching for the alarm button, he was astounded by how quickly the guards outside were taken out. A group of unidentified humanoids came outside covered in armor that obscured their identities. That was all that he could get a glimpse of before the cameras were taken down.

**BOOM**

"Fuck!"

He was knocked off his feet. That explosion shook the entire building to its foundation.

The alarm was still not pressed. He reached for the button.

"_Won't to let you do that."_

He looked back. It was one of them, weapon pointed straight at his head.

"Hands in the air, or rounds through your skull. Your choice."

'Your choice.' Yeah right. The guard defies him, confident in the strength of his shielding unit.

**BANG**

Funny. A gunshot, yet the picture remained clear. He looked down.

His hand, along with the alarm button, was shattered with a single bullet.

He feels a surge of pain flowing through him.

"**AAAUGH!"**

"That's right. Point your blood-stained fingers to the sky…"

"Why isn't the alarm sounding?!" A female voice shrilled through the hallway outside.

Oh shit. That's Filyn.

"You! Stop right there!"

"You're unarmed. Put your hands in the air or I would shoot." An unknown, older, female voice. Hm.

**FWEEE**

**BANG**

"Holy mistress of Stalin! That's cold blooded, shooting a kid?!" the unknown male spat in a hushed tone.

"**SPETZNAZ KETTLE! PISSED OFF POT!"** the other unknown retorted.

"**You'll pay for that!"**

**PSZZACK**

A magnetic pulse ripped through the building and sent solid chunks of metal toward the enemy. One of them was lucky enough to dodge the attack, but the other got hit, and careened to the end of the hall.

"ACK!"

**KRACKOOM**

Electricity ripped through the hallway, bathing the two in bright light.

A message blared out of the female soldier's radio. The guard couldn't understand it.

"Tuurngait!" The female enemy uttered a strange word, panicked and afraid.

"I'll teach you to respect the authority of our Vision! CPU candidate Mage Sister will **destroy you!**"

Mage Sister rushed towards the female with a ferocity that sent a shiver down the guard's spine.

**FZZACK! BOOM!**

"**WHERE ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF!"**

**KRACKOOM! BOOM! PSHONG! FWEEE! BOOM!**

The hallway outside away from the elevator collapsed. There was absolutely no way this didn't attract unwanted attention. He decided instead to tend to his serious wounds on his right hand. By "tend to" we of course mean potions, and he used a mild one at first in vain hope. The bullet failed to dislodge; the pain worsened as the serum was too weak. He reached for the strong stuff.

"_NghAhHaAHah!..."_

He wasn't trained to do this shit, let alone operate cameras. That potion costed a month of his salary to procure. He felt incredibly upset at the effectiveness; it felt like a waste of money.

"_MMNNFF! Fuck!"_

That was tangential. He looked up at the screen where there was nothing but pure dread.

"_Green Heart… and her ORACLE! Everything's going to shit!"_

He tried to relay that information in a more conventional manner. The situation is dire enough, but now that a CPU was here, he needs his radio NOW. Where was it?! Why did he leave it under his desk?!

"Attention Condor Overwatch! Extreme urgency!"

**BOOM!**

"Be advised that…"

**KRACKOOM!**

"Gr…"

**FZZT!**

The whole room went black. Every screen darkened. Not even his laptop remained on. In fact…

"Fuck. Radio's dead."

He could already hear them routing. Whatever that was, the message was clear.

**VRRMMMM**

Fortunately, there was a backup system in place for an event such as this. However, these circuits relied on chemical reactions – hormones, neurotransmitters – rather than pure electricity, to transmit information, which was horrendously slow despite being many scales of magnitude larger in regards to memory capabilities, as well as incredible EMP resistance. There were three connections that this system has with the outside world: cameras, speakers, and the primary computer system.

Turning to face the camera, the guard initiates the broadcast protocol by showing his keycard – a picture of his face with a QR-code style symbol, the symbol denoting his security clearance – and his name.

The camera's light bioflouresced green after a full minute, from the original red. He clears his throat.

"Ahem. Condor Watch. Be advised that CPU Green Heart, and her oracle, have been spotted passing through the secondary security grid 15 minutes ago. Repeat – CPU Green Heart and her oracle…"

"Freeze."

He recognized that voice as the one that uttered the strange word.

* * *

"Ice fucking cold. Hands behind your back."

He's not going to try his luck again. He complies.

Sanna aimed her weapon directly at the guard's head.

"Understand that if you tried any shit like before, your _spine_ would be shattered."

The guard nods. Staring directly at the camera, she sees it active, and found within her a question.

"Why's that on?"

"Emergency system. Immune to EMPs." The guard said.

"Interesting."

"An ally to the Vision was responsible for its technological foundation."

"And you were sending a message on it through these speakers?"

"Yes. As you know, CPU Green Heart is-"

"Another CPU? Fuck."

"I thought you were with them!"

"Curse English. Somehow everyone knows its whack tongue even if you tread the multiverse."

"Excuse me?!"

"I need to send a message myself."

**THUMP**

Sanna bound the guard's hands with a length of rope.

"I am Sedna, the undersea goddess of death. I am climbing towards the surface to evacuate this building. If you don't want to be claimed by my hands, stay out of my way. This is your final warning – I am a vengeful deity and you are nothing more than insects to me."

**WHAM**

Sanna finished her deception as she smashed the camera with her fist.

"Everything you have. Where is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The guard was squirming inside his restraints, fearful of what would happen next.

"Itialuit! Your hammerspace shit orifice you dumbfuck!"

"It's on my belt! Please don't shoot!"

**WHAM**

Giving the guard a token bruise on the shoulder, she grabs the metallic device and opens it up.

"Please don't take my escape button! I need it to get back home!"

Sanna fell silent for a moment. "Home?!" she asked.

"What? You don't know what those things are?!"

Opening the contents of the device, she scanned through until she found something that looks like it would fit the description. A red button attached to a silver box-like device.

"Is this it?" Sanna says, waving the device in front of the thug's face. The guard squirmed underneath, betraying that it is, in fact, the correct item. The same item that saved her ass before.

"How the hell are you going to get home with this? Does it carry more than one person?"

"Yeah… You calibrate it to wherever the destination would be by winding the tuner underneath. When you want to go there you slam your fist as hard as you can into it, and anyone that you're touching gets warped out as well. It's user-friendly, but ridiculously expensive."

**KRACKOOM**

The guard cheered as Sanna evaded the blast, dropping her prize. "Oh yes, Mage Sister! I'm saved!"

"Inbetween Spear!"

**TANG**

"Oh shit, Green Heart! We're **fucked!**"


	17. UNFINISHED - Dead Weight

Sanna tried to recover from the explosion, only to

* * *

Summary

\- Sanna gets covered in nightmare dust, which for some reason powers up her weapons but impedes her movement.

\- A horrifying creature manifests itself in the ruins of the old Leanbox base, sorely interrupting the fight between Mage Sister and Green Heart.

\- The base gets flooded with water from the coastline.


End file.
